Bomber's Apprentice
by SilverAnemosLupa
Summary: Reika, a high school student who has gone through a lot as a child ,sees the world as a dark, painful place and is less than optimistic to get up in the mornings. She is suddenly kidnapped by ninjas and is recruited to become Deidara's apprentice. Throughout her training she goes through hardships and realizes life isn't as bad as she believed it to be, but something is still off.
1. One thought leads to a web

**A/N:** Ok, so this fanfiction is pretty much entirely based off a dream I had so I'm sorry if it's kind of stupid!**  
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So first, to avoid any confusion, the setting is kind of like one part of the world is modern day (i.e. Modern day cities) and the other part is more rural and ancient, less known because it's kept hidden and secret (i.e. ninjas! Akatsuki hideout. Naruto.) and for some reason in my dream, my high school has dorm rooms.

Also. This is a mix of real life, Naruto and Slenderman.

Constructive criticism is welcomed but please keep these in mind before hand:

- This is based off a dream. It will not be following the story line of the anime like most fanfiction (although I will try to as best as I can)

- I really don't care if my character is kind of Marry-Sue-ish. It's based off a dream that I was in, so even though I will try to lessen the marry-sueness, it will not be perfect and will definitely be kinda cheesy.

- I'm kind of just writing off the top of my head (B.S'ing it pretty much)

_Edit: Took out all the angst! Yay!_

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Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto

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**Chapter One: One thought leads to a web**

"Bye Madi!" I yelled waving as my friend got into her car to drive home. I, on the other hand, lived in the high school dorm rooms so I turned and began my routine walk to the other side of the school where the dorms were.

As I walked I contemplated random, meaningless, trivial things as I always did when the day was nearly over. When I reached my dorm room and opened the door, my mind had wandered to the concept of friends. Looking in at the two beds on either side of the room, I thought about the loneliness one might feel in such a large room without a roommate.

'Well,' I thought silently. 'I don't have a roommate. But I don't feel too lonely.' A lie. A truth. Neither. I plopped down on my bed after tossing my school work aside onto the floor. I'd deal with that meaningless stuff later. It was all just busy work anyways. Resting my head on the pillow I thought more deeply.

'Do I really not feel lonely? Or am I just so lonely I don't feel anything? Or are my other sides absorbing these feelings, leaving me numb and emotionless?'

The last question sent my thoughts into my past. Ever since I could remember I'd had multiple personalities, but I have no idea what could have caused them. I've heard of troubled children developing them to cope with pain but I'd never really had too many problems as a kid; at least, none that a normal kid wouldn't have. The usual few bullies, fights with friends, little things like that. Although, I was never really any good at socializing with other kids. Girls my age were interested in dolls and dress up while I was a bit more of a tomboy. I enjoyed being outside all the time, climbing trees and rolling down grassy hills, getting muddy and that sort of junk. Unfortunately, being a girl and liking those things made most boys that age think I was weird and they kept their distance. I never got too lonely though because I'd have conversations with my personalities. It made my parents quite worried for a while but they brushed them off as imaginary friends I'd created.

I sighed as I thought about home and looked around my empty room. My parents figured that I'd get a better education at this school and sent me here even though it was so far away from home. I didn't have many friends here though, and the ones I did have lived nearby so they didn't stay in the dorms. I honestly would prefer to be closer to home but it wasn't too lonely here. I had two roommates. Sort of.

"_You think too much."_

'Livia.' She was one of my split personalities. Always trying to take control of my body so that she could be free to do as she pleased. She was a very tenacious spirit and she was often the source of all the fights I'd get into as a kid. I always wound up beating the other kid up pretty bad but it resulted in some pretty bad punishments for myself so I tried to keep her in check as best as I could. She and Tamara, the other voice within my head, were nearly complete opposites in personality and thoughts. All but one that is; Trust no one completely and never get too attached, and I grew up by that rule because of them. Sometimes I would stray and trust someone but it would always blow up in my face, and Livia would rub it in until I started listening to her again.

"Shut up Livia." I said aloud, knowing no one would hear. I looked up to see the sun had almost disappeared and decided it was time to get up and get the days chores over with. I grabbed my school work and sat in the corner for an hour, fussing over it until I just decided it wasn't important enough to really give any real effort into completing. Throwing it aside once again, I got up and showered. Next to sleep, showering was my favorite thing to do. It cleared my head and for a small period of time, I'm truly able to just relax and enjoy the warmth of the water against my usually freezing skin.

I finished showering and stepped out, grabbing my towel and drying my hair. I looked into the fogged up mirror briefly and let my mind wander again as my eyes scanned lazily over my face and hair. Short blond hair, dyed black underneath, unimpressive green eyes. Nothing really special stood out about me. I was just an average looking high school girl. It didn't bother me though, I actually preferred not to stand out.

'I don't need any attention.' I threw my towel over a rack to dry. 'I can handle all my issues on my own.' Another lie. Another truth.

_CLANK_

'What was that?' I wondered and quickly got dressed. I opened the bathroom door and looked around the room. 'Everything seems like it's in place…' I walked over to the window and looked around but it was too dark to really see. I shrugged the noise off as just a stray animal running around and went back to the mirror to brush my hair.

Soon my thoughts wandered back to my other personality.

'Tamara.' She was, what I believe to be, the source of my _slightly_ anti-social behavior. She was very quiet and seemed shy but I could tell she wasn't weak. She just preferred things to be quiet and calm. She never tried to control my body like Livia. She was cool and collective, and very contemplative and cautious; Almost the opposite of Livia's impulsive nature. Sometimes their clashing personalities made my own feelings about a matter confusing and conflicting; especially when it came to the reason why I couldn't remember anything before the age of six. I know most people have a hard time remembering when they were very young but most could recall some moments that were clear. My memories however just started at six. I always wondered why…

"_Quit with the over-complicated thinking already." _Livia interrupted my thoughts._ "Jeez, you're going to give me a migraine."_

After picking up my textbooks and setting them near my backpack, I went to my bed and wrapped the covers around myself as tightly as possible to keep warm through the night. My eyes began to close as I said,

"Shut up Livia…"

The last thing I remember before drifting off was seeing a small, pale spider crawl up onto the night stand next to my bed.

'How pretty.' I had thought to myself, already beginning to dream.

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**A/N: **Sorry the first chapter is sort of short and uninteresting, but it's just supposed to be a sort of Introductory chapter ^-^;

_(I always put notes on the top and the bottom)_


	2. Voices

**A/N:** Sorry everyone who is actually interested in this story. Some chapters may be a bit short... Like this one. And the story may at times take a little while to get to the point, but I'm trying my best to make it fun to read! (First chapter was more of a chapter to know the main character a bit better, so I understand it wasn't that interesting) Still I hope you enjoy enough to read through and follow the story!

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**Chapter two: Voices**

"_I think she's perfect."_

"_What makes you think she would make a good apprentice?"_

"_I just have a feeling. There's something… different about her."_

'Voices?' It was pitch black and I couldn't feel my face. 'Am I dreaming? I must be. I feel light. No. I don't even feel.'

"_Are you sure? She seems weak. She doesn't even have any training."_

'Voices again. Are they Tamara and Livia's?' I felt my eyelids twitch. 'No. These are male voices. And they're coming from outside my body.'

"_I'm positive, hm!"_

"_Well then, let's collect her and get going."_

"_Right, hm."_

My eyes started to open as I finally became conscious again. Scuffling feet and rustling clothes as people hurried around my room. There were people in my room!

"_Oh my."_

"_What is it now?"_

"_It looks like she's starting to wake up."_

Silence. I tried opening my eyes fully as I heard the noise of a bottle tipping and liquid sloshing inside of it, but the usually simple task seemed nearly impossible. I had managed to open my eyes just enough to see the little bit of light that the window let into my room, but my vision was fuzzy. I just made out the blurred figure of a blond man bending down when I felt a rag gently, but firmly cover my mouth and nose. My heart beat once quickly in my chest then settled as I stared into the man's deep blue eyes.

'What pretty eyes.' I thought as my head started to feel light again. My vision blurred and blackened.

"_Shhh."_

Before I was completely unconscious I heard the other man speak on last time.

"_What a useless mission. There's no money to gain here in this part of the world. If it hadn't been for my orders to accompany you, I could be out filling a bounty right n—"_

Silence. Darkness. Unconsciousness. Dreams of falling and tumbling about, screaming but unable to make a noise. For once, I actually wished I would wake up. But I couldn't.

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**A/N:** Oh goodness, this one was seriously short. Terribly sorry for that! The following chapters will definitely be much longer. ^u^ No worries!


	3. Unfamiliar Space

**A/N:**Starting to get better! (I hope)

Enjoy the short, yet slightly longer chapter!

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**Chapter Three: Unfamiliar Space**

'_Reika.'_

Livia?

'_Reika you stupid girl, wake up!'_

When I didn't respond she groaned frustrated and took control of my body. Forcing me to sit up and open my eyes, she made me slap my own face, and like that, I was fully conscious and back in control again.

"Ow! Damn it Livia." I muttered quietly. I raised a hand to rub my burning cheek, and then froze, realizing I wasn't in my room. I looked around quickly and my heart started racing as I began to panic.

'_Calm down Reika!' _Livia warned. Annoyance filled her words. _'Panicking won't help you! We're obviously not at the school so assess where we are! Maybe you can find a way out.'_

I took a deep breath and looked around the dimly lit room. It was about the same size as the dorm room was. There was a low table in the center of the room and a desk in the opposite corner but otherwise the room was barren. I looked down and noticed I was on a small bed with thin covers. There was a door on the other end of the room.

'A door!' I thought. 'I hope it's unlocked.'

I rolled my legs off the side of the bed and stood quickly. The floor was hard against my bare feet. When I stood, my head felt like it had dropped off my shoulders and was spinning. I started to fall, feeling dizzy as the walls swirled around me. My body collided with the floor, limp as a doll's. My head hit hard and black dots obscured my vision then turned into stars as I felt my stomach churn. Feeling sick I scrambled to my knees and threw up what little food was left in my stomach. Suddenly drowsy, I lay on my side and closed my eyes.

'_Reika, you stupid girl!' _raged Livia. _'Don't fall asleep after hitting your head that hard! You won't wake up!'_

She kept on yelling as I reluctantly sat back up.

'Shut up Livia. Now you're giving _ME_ a migraine.'

I sat there a while until the dizziness subsided enough so I could focus. Crawling, I went over to the wall and used it for support as I tried to stand.

'Wait…' I thought. 'This isn't dry wall.' I looked closer, still feeling with my hands. The wall was warm. 'This is clay. Who makes their homes out of clay anymore?'

'_Forget about that!' _Livia yelled. _'What a trivial thing to be thinking about in this situation! Look for any cameras. I doubt they'd leave you unsupervised.'_

Just as she'd said, when I looked up there was a small camera in the corner by the door. As much as I hated her, Livia really did know what to do when under pressure.

'Oh gosh. What do I do?' I asked her, frightened by the thought of strangers watching me.

'_Look for a different way out…' _The quiet voice came from Tamara. She sounded scared. I searched the room again but found no other way out. However, I did notice something I had somehow missed earlier. There was a small tray of food on the low table. I walked unsteadily over and looked at what it held. Rice and a bowl of noodles. I had no appetite.

'_You shouldn't eat this anyways.'_ Chimed in Livia. _'It could be drugged or poisoned.'_

I nodded in agreement.

'What now?' I asked anxiously.

'_I guess take the only exit. It's better than sitting and waiting here in a room filled with the stink of vomit!'_

I took a deep breath, and then shakily made my way to the door. With a quivering hand, I turned the handle and opened the door to the unknown.

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**A/N:** I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, _Finally! She's about to get to the action! About to start the actual story!_ Haha

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. More to come! And much longer chapters too.


	4. Failed Escape

**A/N:** Next chapter!**  
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**Chapter four: Failed escape**

The door led into a long hallway with doors crowded on both sides. I didn't dare open one while I walked past. The end of the hallway led to a right turn into another hallway, this time with no doors on the sides. At the end of this hallway, it opened up into what looked to be a recreational area. No one was there. Looking around I saw two other doorways. Randomly selecting one, I eased over to it and started down.

"_Hmm… This man's bounty is bigger but he's farther away than this one…"_

I froze. This voice, I recognized it. It was one of the men that had been in my dorm room. One of the men that had kidnapped me! I started to back up slowly, planning on taking the route through the other door, when I bumped into something hard. No. Not something. Someone! I whirled around and nearly lost my balance from the dizziness that followed. My eyes studied the person uneasily. He was wearing a black cloak with red clouds and his skin was… blue?

'What the hell?!' I panicked. He grinned, revealing his sharp, pointed teeth. His eyes were dark like a shark's as he returned my stare.

"What do we have here?" His voice shook me. I opened my mouth to scream but was too frightened to make a noise. Then a much smaller figure, dressed in the same attire, poked his head out from behind the blue man. He wore an orange mask with a swirl-like design.

"Oh?! Kisame-senpai who's his? I've never seen them before. Oh! And it's a girl, how pretty! But she's not as pretty as Deidara-senp—!"

"Tsk." Annoyance in the blue man's voice. "Would you shut up you idiot?!" He bashed the other man's head with his fist.

"Waaahaa! Kisame-senpai's so mean!"

As they argued, I made a decision and ran away from them, towards the voice of the other man.

'If I'm lucky, there will be a door from there that I can quickly run out of!' I rationalized in my head as I ran.

"_Bah! She's getting away Kisame-senpai! Want me to get her?"_

"_Go for it. I don't care."_

I sped up after hearing that and felt certain that he couldn't catch up to me before I got to the other room. Making a turn, I saw brighter lights in the next turn ahead.

'There! It must be there!'

Glancing back, I sighed in relief, seeing no one behind me.

"Gotcha!"

I jumped surprised and looked forward. It was the masked man.

"But…How?!" I said more to myself. He opened his arms to grab me and I tried to stop but was going too fast.

"Eh… Oh, OH NO! Woah slow down, ah-AAAHH!" He yelled as I crashed into him. We went tumbling down the hallway and crashed into the wall where the turn opened up into an office-like room.

"Hmm?" The man at the desk looked up annoyed.

I shook the dizziness from my head, got up and tried to run again, but a hand caught the neck of my shirt and lifted me up like I weighed no more than a feather. My shirt lifted up too high for comfort and I grabbed at the end, pushing it down blushing, trying to keep it from rising any higher.

The masked man sat up rubbing his head.

"Aaaah…Oh! Kisame-senpai! I caught her—Ow!"

My capture had his foot planted on the masked man's head.

"Idiot!"

"_Ahem!_" An aggravated voice. "It's rude to be so noisy this early in the morning. You're being very counterproductive to my work… It's pissing me off." The man's deadly glare silenced the other two. I looked at him. Same cloak. He wore a mask around his mouth and nose and some sort of head covering along with a head band. When my eyes met his I shuddered and my body felt like ice. His green eyes were piercing.

"Eheh, calm down Kakuzu." The blue man named Kisame said uneasily. "We didn't mean to bother you. We just caught this little snake slithering around." He was referring to me. The green eyed Kakuzu glanced at me then looked back down at his work.

"Oh her. Take her to Deidara. He will tell you what he wants for her. She's not my problem and is a waste of my time and money." He muttered to himself, still obviously annoyed but keeping himself calm.

"Right." Kisame threw me over his shoulder effortlessly, still holding tightly to keep me from struggling and then grabbed the collar on the cloak of the masked man, dragging him behind us. "Come on Tobi. You don't want to piss Kakuzu off like that. You'd be killed in no time." Then he muttered to himself. "Although that'd be no scales off my gills. You're a waste of space."

Tobi eventually struggled free of Kisame's grasp, but continued to follow us, never failing to talk his mouth off every opportunity he got. Each time annoying Kisame enough to make him stop and smack, kick, or punch him. I stayed silent and tried to memorize the route that we were taking, but we took so many twists and turns that I lost track and eventually gave up, closing my eyes to ease my turning stomach instead. Tobi tried conversing with me a few times but I either pretended to sleep or ignored him. I didn't feel like talking. What was the point?

After what seemed an eternity of turns and swaying side to side, Kisame finally stopped at a door and knocked.

"_Come in."_ A voice chimed. I recognized this voice as well and my body shook, anticipating the worst. Kisame opened the door and walked inside, followed by Tobi.

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**A/N:** Finally, the Akatsuki actually show up! XD Meh, kinda. Hope you liked it.


	5. Deidara

**A/N:** Getting lazy with my Author's notes because I really don't have anything to explain. O.o... Enjoy!**  
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**Chapter Five: Deidara**

When we entered the room, Kisame tossed me roughly onto a bed in the corner. My back hit the wall and it knocked the breath out of me. I collapsed onto the bed, once again, dizzy and disoriented. This was beginning to get annoying.

"Hey!" The voice quickly shouted. "Kisame be careful! Don't just throw her around like that!"

"Sorry." Kisame replied, not really caring.

"Hey! Why'd you put her on my bed?" Tobi whined. "She's not gonna be sleeping in here now instead of me is she Deidara-senpai?"

"Ugh Tobi you're so annoying." Deidara groaned. "What a stupid thing to ask. Of course she's not!"

"Thank goodness!" Tobi spun around happily.

"What a spaz…" Kisame muttered. Then with a chuckle, he turned. "Well, I'm leaving. I have a mission with Itachi. Kakuzu told me you'd be in charge of the girl."

"See ya." Deidara waved. Then he walked over to me where I was still trying to recover from my spinning head.

"Who is she Deidara-senpai?" Tobi questioned curiously. He got closer to me. "Oh! Are you gonna blow her up in some sort of art display or something!?" He poked my cheek.

'Blow me up!?' I sat up quickly and backed into the corner away from both men. 'What does he mean?' My heart started racing, beating as fast as my thoughts were flying through my head. Deidara glared at Tobi.

"No Tobi, you idiot!" He looked really annoyed. "That is distasteful, hm! That isn't art, that's an insult to art!"

"I see no difference." Tobi shrugged. Deidara's face grew dark and I saw Tobi shake. "I-I-I… I mean— no wait, I didn't mean it like—"

"_Tobi—._ " Deidara growled shakily with anger.

"AAAAA_AAAAaaaaaahhhh—!"_ Tobi's terrified yet still comical scream echoed as he ran out of the room and down the maze of hallways. The door slammed behind him.

"Tch." Deidara sighed. "Idiot." Then he turned back to me. I froze and receded as far back into the corner as I possibly could. The man had blond hair, partially pulled up into a ponytail, and wore a headband like the others. I guessed that he had a cloak as well although he didn't currently have it on. Instead he wore a black, sleeveless, midriff shirt with mesh armor along with matching black pants. I also noticed that his arms both had what seemed like stitches. Almost like someone had sewn his arms back on like a doll. I made no noises as I studied his appearance. I was too terrified. Deidara's face softened. "I'm sorry for how they treated you. I know this must all be frightening, hm. I would have taken more time to actually meet and debrief you on everything before bringing you here, but things came up and I had no choice but to just grab and go."

"Where am I?" I managed to squeak out, forcing myself to speak.

"The new Akatsuki headquarters, hm."

"The…What?"

He laughed. "Don't worry. I have a lot to tell you and you have a lot to learn, hm." He glanced at me. "But first, I have to test you to see if my intuition was right."

"Test me?"

"Yeah. We will begin tomorrow after you've gotten used to your new surroundings, hm."

'_What's this asshole's problem?!' _Livia suddenly burst out as Deidara continued to speak. I started to feel my hands go numb and the vision in my left eye blurred.

"No, Livia don't!" I tried to whisper to myself, but I guess Deidara had heard because he stopped talking and turned his head to me.

"What?" He asked confused. Before I could even open my mouth, my own consciousness was pushed back inside my body and replaced by Livia. I could see everything, but had no control whatsoever over my own body.

"You son of a bitch!" She screamed and jumped at him. Caught off guard he fell and she latched her hands onto his throat. He grinned widely and it almost looked like he was insane for a second. He easily knocked Livia off and hopped up, pulling out a kunai and taking a defensive stance.

'Kunai?' I thought curiously. 'I didn't think people actually fought with kunai.'

Livia glared at him. He smirked back.

"I get it now!" He suddenly said. "Multiple personalities! That's what this is, hm!" He lowered his kunai and looked at her. "You should meet Zetsu sometime. He might enjoy your company." Livia growled at him annoyed. "Calm down, I don't want to fight you."

"Well you're gonna have to, you arrogant bastard!" She yelled, lunging at him again. Deidara quickly ducked away from her fist, balled his own hand into a fist and said,

"You're impulsive. I like that." Then he hit her so hard in the gut that it threw her back and I was back in control. The sudden surge of pain that shot through me was indescribable. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't stand, and at times I couldn't even see. Before I hit the ground he caught me, and picked me up like a sleeping child, even though he couldn't have been more than a couple years older than I was. "Well, this definitely has me thinking I chose correctly. This is a good start, hm."

I didn't try to respond or even speak as he carried me through the halls back to the room where I had woken up. I didn't even have the strength to look up at him when he spoke.

"I guess we can put off your test for a couple more days, hm. Especially after taking that punch." He opened the door to what I now guessed was going to be my room. "I'll see if Konan will bring you some clothes to change into tomorrow morning, and I'll have someone bring you breakfast every day. Other meals will be up to you to get." He laid me down on the bed. I sniffed the air out of habit. It smelled clean.

'So someone came in to clean up the puke.' I noted.

"I'll come check in on you tomorrow. Until then, you can do as you please. Just try not to bother anyone else for the rest of the day. Don't want you getting yourself killed before I even have a chance to test you." He turned and closed the door as he left.

After the pain in my ribs subsided enough, I turned on my side and closed my eyes until sleep came crashing down on my worn body. I was too tired to even think.


	6. Unexpected

**A/N:** Ok, I'm trying really hard to make this story interesting. ;_ ; Im sorry if sometimes it's not so great. I'm really trying, and I'm especially trying to keep Reika from seeming too mary-sueish. _(I edited out alot of the angst that she first had when I uploaded the story so that has helped quite a bit)_

I also tried to put in a bit of comedy by putting in a common joke about Deidara, so hopefully that helped too.

I don't know. Reviews are very welcomed! ^-^; Constructive of course, but if there's anything I can start doing (or stop doing) that may help the story I'd be more than happy to listen to any advice!

(Oh, and again, Reika's snobbyness and stubborn spoiled-ish attitude is in there for a reason, so try not to take that as her being mary-suelike. It's got a slight role in the story... I suppose.)

Hope you enjoy! :D

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**Chapter Six: Unexpected**

I woke up later feeling a lot better, aside from my sore ribs. I smelled something sweet in my room and turned over in my bed to see what it was.

"Ooooh you're awake!" Tobi exclaimed, then added rather carelessly, "You've been sleeping for a while; I thought you'd died in your sleep!"

I jumped back into the wall surprised. Why was there someone in my room while I was asleep?! Was there no place for me to sleep peacefully alone?

"Why are you in here!?" I demanded, still shaken up.

"Senpai sent me to bring you breakfast." Tobi answered, still sitting by my bed. "He thought I was the best choice to bring it to you today. I'm so proud of myself! Deidara-senpai chose me, because Tobi is a good boy!"

As Tobi went on blabbing, I looked over his shoulder at the food on the table.

"How long was I asleep for?" I interrupted him.

"Nearly the whole day!" He answered. I couldn't believe it. Had I really slept for so long? I looked again at the food then at the door.

"I'm not hungry." I told Tobi. Then I got up and saw some folded clothes on the desk across the room. Walking over I asked, "Do you have showers around here?"

"Yeah we do." He stood. "I'll show you them!" He walked to the door with a funny little dance and I followed carrying the clothes that I had been given. He led me down the hallway to the last door on the left and said that inside was where the showers were. I nodded my thanks and I guess he understood that I wanted him to leave because after that he waved and skipped down the other hall. I opened the door slowly and peeked in. The showers were the stall kind, like you'd see in a gym locker room. Seeing no one, I quickly stepped in, grabbed a towel from a shelf nearby and took a stall. I wanted to hurry, just in case my thoughts about this bathroom were right.

'Mixed gender bathroom.' I thought uncomfortably. 'Or even… Just a guy's bathroom. Come to think of it, I've only seen men in this place.' I shuddered and turned on the water.

"C-C-COOOOLD!" I yelled when the water hit me. Shivering, I moved back against the stall as far as I could to wait for the water to warm up. I kept my hand out, testing the water to make sure it did change temperatures and that cold wasn't it's only one. Lucky for me, it did warm up and I quickly finished with my shower, only going slow enough to be clean. I didn't have time for a long shower, not in this kind of situation and with the possibility of being walked in on. I kept blushing at the thought of that and it made me wash even quicker.

"Done." I said quietly and turned off the water. Then I dried and got dressed in the clothes I'd been given. "Hmm… I wonder if they have a mirror… Ah! There's a small one hanging on the wall here!" I walked over and looked at the clothes on me. "Wait… They're the same as… That Deidara guys clothes." Same V necked mid-drift shirt with mesh underneath and same kind of pants. I started to laugh to myself. 'If I'm a girl, and they gave me these clothes… He must be dressing like a girl too!' I couldn't help but keep laughing. 'Now that I think about it, he has long blond hair like a girl too! Maybe he's a cross-dresser!' I got closer to the mirror and lifted my hands to my hair. 'Maybe if I….' I tried putting my hair in a ponytail like his. 'Ah, my hair is too short for that…' Sudden shock filled me. 'Wait, what the hell am I doing!?' I slapped myself in the face, looked into the mirror, and proceeded to talk to myself. 'This is no time to be joking around! You've just been kidnapped! What is your problem!?' Shaking my head I turned to the door and opened it.

"Good morning."

My heart jumped at the unexpected company and greeting. Deidara had been just outside the door when I opened it. I noticed he was dressed in that black cloak this time. Then I realized.

"How long have you been there!?" I quickly asked, a light blush coming across my face. 'I hope he hadn't heard me laughing.'

"Not too long." He looked a bit puzzled. "Why do you ask?" I shook my head.

"No reason. What do you want?"

"Just to see if you were awake." He looked me up and down. "Good, the clothes fit you, hm." He turned and motioned with his hand. "Follow me, hm."

"What for?" I asked, reluctant to go anywhere but back to the room I was now forced to call my own. He looked back annoyed and grabbed me by my hair.

"Just follow me!" His voice was irritated as he dragged me along with him down the hallway, muttering to himself bitterly. I'm not certain, but I believe I heard Tobi's name in that muttering.

'So he's why Deidara is so annoyed.' I sighed. "Let go of my hair damn it! I'll follow you! That hurts!" He let go then and continued to walk. I had no choice but to follow. Again, I tried to remember the route we were taking. No good, there were too many twists and turns and I didn't know the place well enough to even recognize if I was in the right hallway. I would be lost in this maze in no time if I tried to go through it on my own anytime soon.

"Hey," I asked. "Where exactly are we going? We've been walking for a while, I'm tired."

"Do you always complain so much?" He replied without looking back. "Anyways, we're almost there. Just a few more turns, hm." I continued to follow behind. Bored, I found myself looking at the back of his head at his long blond hair.

'_Heh, he really does look like a girl!' _Livia laughed. _'I wonder if he really is a guy! This could be interesting to find out!'_

'Shut it Livia!' I warned her. The memory of being punched in the gut because of her wasn't far back in my mind and I grabbed my stomach, thinking of the pain from the previous night.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I felt a gust of wind blow through the hall. It felt warm. I looked up and saw an exit to bright light. The air smelled nice and I took deep breaths of it as Deidara and I walked towards the exit. 'How relaxing.' I stared at the exit until I was able to see outside. 'I thought so! This is an exit out of thismucky place… I may be able to make a run for it…'

We stepped out into the fresh air. The sight was amazing! In front of us was a large open field and surrounding that was a deep forest.

"Amazing…" I said under my breath.

"It is isn't it?" Deidara grinned. "But it isn't worthy of being called art, hm." I looked over at him. He seemed distracted.

'I need to get away… I should run now while I've got the chance.' My body tensed up and I prepared to run when his voice froze me.

"There's no point in running, hm." He looked me in the eyes and I couldn't help but stare back. His eyes were hypnotizing. "If you were to go out there alone, you'd be killed in no time, hm." The bluntness in his voice told me he wasn't lying and it made my body shake in fear. I shook my head and straightened my body.

"So why are we out here?"

"You don't remember?" He grinned at me. "It's time for your test, hm."

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**A/N:** Looks like Reika's in a bind :3 I enjoy torturing my OC's. Always a fun thing to do.


	7. Difficult Test: Skills Awakened

**A/N:** Hey everyone who's been able to read through the previous chapters! (I know, I'm not a very good author TT^TT) I wanted to apologize in advance for this chapter you're on right now! It lacks actual action, I know. I'm sorry Q_Q But, it isn't really supposed to be a serious fight scene so, yeah.

I'm trying my hardest to improve my writing skills/style. I hope you don't mind my constant use of short sentences, that's just the style that I tend to enjoy. And my constant use of the word "I" at the beginning of sentences! It drives me mad as well, but it seems like the only way I can get through sometimes.

Anyways, I still hope you enjoy!

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**Chapter Seven: Difficult Test: Skills Awakened**

"What?" I asked confused. "My test? Wait, I don't understand. Didn't you say I was going to get more time to rest? What is the test anyways? You can't jus—"

"It's a battle." He said coolly. He looked back at the exit. "Zetsu, cover the exit so she can't run back inside." I looked over and saw a plant-like person come out of the ground.

"It's covered." The plant guy replied.

'Venus fly trap?' I thought as I looked at him. 'What the hell is he?!' I turned to shout at Deidara but when I looked at him he grinned and said,

"Now, it begins!" He jumped back and shoved his hands into bags that were on his belt. "If you want to live, I'd suggest you fight me like you're trying to kill me!"

'_Heh! No problem there!'_ Livia laughed smugly. _'I've wanted to kill that guy from the moment I saw him, and I owe him one after he hit me like that!'_

"Livia now's not the time!" I yelled at her, still watching Deidara. 'What's he doing?' I took a few steps back and he pulled his hands out.

"Ready!" He yelled. Then he threw what seemed like balls of clay towards me and quickly made a sign with his hands. The clay balls turned into little spiders and came hurling after me. I stood wondering what he was planning when I saw him make another sign out of the corner of my eyes and yell, "Katsu!"

In a flash of light, there was a huge explosion. Along with me, it threw up debris and dirt everywhere. My ears were ringing and my eyes wouldn't focus as I hit the ground hard. I couldn't even tell if I had screamed or not. Gasping for air I sat up and grabbed my head.

'What the hell…?' I looked around still disoriented. Everything was going in slow motion as adrenaline spread through my body. I looked over at Deidara who was running at me, his hands in his bags again ready for another attack. Then I looked at the plant guy blocking the way back in; as if I'd want back in there anyways. Returning my sights to Deidara, he had thrown another batch of spider like bombs at me. I studied them closer. A picture flashed in my head and my eyes widened. 'That spider… I saw that kind of spider by my bedside before I'd gone to sleep a few nights ago…' A pain shot through my chest. This man had kidnapped me. He had brought me to this unknown place, and now he was trying to kill me!

'Why?' I thought. My family, my friends and all the memories I had flashed through my mind. 'I can't die now!' My eyes watered, watching the bombs get even closer. 'I can't leave my family and my friends like this!' Rage filled me and I felt a pain shoot through my chest. Determined to survive, I felt my will fill me with fury. With a surge of energy, I turned towards the bombs as Deidara made the sign with his hands and I screamed. But instead of a scream, what came out was a roar and it sent a wave of air hurling towards the bombs as they exploded.

A cloud of dust and dirt obscured my vision for a moment and I waited for it to settle. 'What is this?' I thought as I searched around. My senses seemed sharper and I felt… I don't even know how to describe how I was feeling. Powerful is the best I can do but is very much an understatement. My ear twitched as a kunai was flung at me through the dust cloud. I dodged but wondered how I knew where it was and how I'd dodged it. Then I realized that it wasn't me making the decisions, my body was moving on its own! Instincts, heightened senses and self-preservation drove my body. It became almost animal like. 'Livia, are you doing this!?'

'_No, I have no idea what the hell is going on!'_ She replied. _'How are you able to move like that?'_

The dust settled and I saw Deidara standing back, already making more clay bombs. His face looked satisfied. But that only pissed me off even more. Remembering all of the happy faces on my friends and family and thinking about the possibility of not seeing them ever again… It really pissed me off. At that moment I stopped caring about what was causing me to feel this way, and just let it take over. I felt powerful. And it felt great.

"Great!" Deidara yelled. "She's finally awakened! I knew there was something about her, hm!" He threw more clay bombs but this time they became birds and flew at me. I jumped back as the first one hit the ground in front of me, then twisted and turned, using the trees to dodge the rest. I noticed the kunai from earlier lodged in the trunk of one tree and grabbed it as I jumped off, using the tree to propel myself at Deidara. I screamed at him as I tried to drive the kunai deep into his chest, nothing but contempt filling my mind at the time. Our eyes met as I got close to his face and he smirked. In seconds, he had disappeared from in front of me and I took a hard blow to my back, and smashed into the ground. The power that had just been surging through my body now seeped away from me, leaving me aching while I desperately tried to cling onto it.

Deidara sighed. "Alright." He knelt down. "The test is over, hm. Zetsu!"

"Yes?" he replied, walking over.

"Go find Tobi and tell him to meet me in our room." Zetsu left and Deidara gently picked me up.

"Ow…" I flinched and struggled to push away from Deidara. I wanted nothing more to do with these people; I just wanted to go back to my old life. "P-Put me down!" I gasped.

"H-Hey, quit squirming around!" He held onto me tighter. "You're going to make your wounds even worse, hm!" Something about the way he was holding me quelled the rest of the lingering anger inside and I calmed down. I was hit with a wave of wariness and my arms suddenly felt like heavy weights. Deidara put me on his back and locked his arms with my legs and as he carried me back into their hideout I closed my eyes and asked,

"What are you going to do with me now? Now that I failed the test..?"

"What are you talking about?" He questioned. "What makes you think you failed?"

"I didn't beat you…" I gritted my teeth and my eyes teared up. "I failed the test…"

"No, you're wrong." He turned his head and looked at me through the corner of his eye. Smiling he said, "You passed! I was right about you. I had a feeling, and I was right, hm." I opened my eyes surprised and his eyes met mine momentarily. Then his smile fell and he looked ahead quickly. For a moment I thought I saw a blush come across his cheeks, but I couldn't tell for sure because my eyes began to shut and I started to drift out of consciousness. When my eyes closed I felt a cold drop of water run down my cheek and drip off my chin, and Deidara stopped briefly, shifting his arms.

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**A/N:** Couldn't resist but to put _(what I consider at least)_ a bit of light fluff in there w Hope you liked the chapter


	8. Explanations

**A/N:** Update time! My plan is to update one chapter every Tuesday (but I forgot yesterday, so I'm making up for it today! haha) So far, I have 13 chapters done and I'm working on the 14th. I want to make sure that I have more done just in case I can't write for a while, that way I can still update on here for anyone who reads this ^-^

However, I've also started drawing again (had a major artist block) so that may also keep me from my writing. I'm considering making this fanfiction into a comic but first I need to get better at drawing comic style. It frustrates me so much -_-

Anyways, hope you enjoy the update! Future chapters will be better, I promise. I'm just trying to develop the story more XD

Reviews always welcomed!

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**Chapter Eight: Explanations**

I came to later when I felt something cold dabbing my cheek. I opened my eyes and turned my head to see what it was.

"You're awake. Good." There was a man with black hair and dark eyes sitting next to me with a damp rag. His face was emotionless and blank. I kept staring deeply into his black eyes, unaware that I was doing so. "What?"

"Your eyes look sad…" I mumbled. For a short moment he looked a bit surprised at my comment then he stood and grabbed the bowl of water that was next to the bed, setting the rag inside it. I sat up and immediately felt the soreness from the battle, most painful was my back. "Ow…"

"Don't push yourself too hard." He said looking over at me. "We just patched up your wounds. It'll be a while until they've fully healed." I looked down and noticed the bandages around my rib area under the mesh of my shirt. I blushed a bit thinking about someone bandaging me up so close to my chest.

"Who are you?" I looked at the man. I hadn't seen him around here yet.

"Itachi Uchiha." He answered walking towards the door. I recognized the name. He was the one who the Kisame guy said he had a mission with just a few days ago. "Deidara asked me to come patch you up and make sure you were ok." He put his hand on the doorknob. "I didn't particularly want to, but Pein said it was important. I could tell Deidara didn't really like having to ask me either, so I guess it was kind of amusing to hear him ask." He opened the door. "I'll go tell him you're up. You should stay in b—."

"No wait." I turned in the bed so my legs were hanging over the side. "Take me to him." Itachi turned his head to me then closed his eyes and nodded. I stood but stumbled, barely catching the wall to support myself. My legs felt like limp noodles and they wouldn't stop shaking. Itachi turned to help but I held up my hand. 'I don't want any more help from these people.' I thought to myself.

'_Damn straight Reika!'_ Livia agreed. _'You only need yourself! Don't ever trust anyone else; you know what happens when you trust others.'_

"I know Livia." I whispered to her. Limping forward, Itachi led me to the large room that I considered their recreational room. I looked around and spotted Deidara and Tobi on the other side of the room sitting on the ground. Tobi was watching Deidara doing something but I couldn't tell what.

"I'll be leaving now." Itachi said to me, knowing that I'd already found Deidara. He left the room and I hobbled across towards the other two, holding my aching ribs. Tobi looked back, saw me and proceeded to announce loudly that I was there.

"Deidara-senpai! Look it's that girl!" He waved. "Helloooo!"

'_How annoying.' _Livia huffed.

'_I think it's funny!' _Tamara countered. _'He makes things seem less serious and more comfortable.'_

'_Shut up Tamara! You're such a brat.'_

'Both of you shut up before I find a way to kick both of your asses!' I thought to them. They heard the seriousness in my tone and stopped talking.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Deidara looked over. "You should be resting, hm."

"Why am I here!?" I shouted.

"Well… You tell me. You're the one who got up and walked over he—"

"No! I mean why did you take me from my home and bring me to this place!?" I glared at him. "Why am I here!? And what the hell was that stupid test for!?" Deidara sighed and motioned for me to come and sit down. I walked over and sat down then saw little clay sculptures in front of Deidara. I flinched backwards.

"Calm down, these won't explode, hm." Deidara picked one of the statues up and pinched at its ear to make it more pointed. It looked like some sort of nine-tailed animal but I couldn't tell what. "Hmm… Tobi, where should I start with my answer?"

"Oh? Senpai you're asking me!?" Tobi started to act a fool again. "Does my opinion really matter that much to you Senpai!? Oh I'm so glad hehe! Is it because Tobi is a good b—"

_BAM!_

"Tobi you idiot!" Deidara bashed Tobi's head and Tobi ran off crying. It was kind of amusing to watch. Deidara sighed and went back to his sculpture. "I guess I'll start with why I took you, hm." I sat and listened carefully.

"It wasn't just out of the blue. I hadn't given any thought to it, but Lord Pein insisted that I find someone to be like… My apprentice or disciple or whatever you want to call it. He told me that it would be useful to have a back-up who knew my techniques and could replace me if I ever got killed." He smirked a bit. "I don't know whether to take that as a compliment of my abilities or as an insult that I'm so easily replaceable, hm. Either way though, I decided 'why the hell not?' and started scouting for someone. First I looked around in the shinobi part of the world." He looked at me. "The shinobi part has been kept hidden from the world you know. We're secretive and cautious all the time, hm. Now where you lived we're nothing more than legends and myths. Stories and things like that. Only a few in your world practice our ways but they don't really know what it means to be shinobi. They consider it a hobby.

"Even after searching all around here for someone I thought fit to learn my art, I couldn't find anyone. So I decided to try something different, hm. I went to your part of the world to look for anyone with potential. A few times I found people who I thought may be good candidates, but after studying them and watching for a while I learned they were no good and moved on. Eventually I came upon you and I got this feeling about you that I can only explain as intuition, hm. I felt something in you, so I watched how you went about your days and sent some of my clay art to research around. You did the same things every day, like you were stuck in an endless cycle. But unlike many others who did the same, I could tell you weren't just following like a sheep in a herd. You were more like… let's see… you were like a wolf in sheep's skin, hm! Sheep follow blindly, not caring, just falling in line dumbly. But, even though you followed, I saw that you didn't do it blindly. You hid yourself from the sheep. On the outside you tricked the others, but inside you were very much different. I know also that you think the same way." He looked at me again. I quickly averted my eyes elsewhere. I didn't want him to see the tears in my eyes.

'_He's right Reika.'_ Tamara mumbled. _'He's the first person who's seen past your lies.'_

'_Reika don't listen to her!'_ Livia warned. _'That's wishful thinking! You know it isn't true, you can't trust this guy, he kidnapped us! He's wrong and he's lying! He's trying to fool you!'_

"Shut up…. Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" I grabbed my head roughly with my hands.

"Huh… Hey what's wrong?" Deidara turned to me. "Did I say something?" I looked up and shook my head.

"N-No, sorry…" He had a worried expression on his face.

"What's wrong then?"

I sighed. "It's nothing important." I could tell by his face he didn't believe me. "Just, keep explaining your story to me." Nodding he went on.

"Anyways, after a while of studying you I decided you would be a good candidate, hm. I left and looked for any other possibilities, but once I'd found you, none of the others seemed to even compare. So I made my mind up and brought you back. I would have taken the time to meet you before hand, that way you might not be so confused, but it was a difficult time so I had to quickly get you. And that is why you are here, hm!" I sat there for a second wondering what to say or ask next.

"So… This shinobi part of the world… It's like, ninjas and demons and things like that?" Deidara nodded. "Alright then. That explains the use of kunai and fighting… I guess. And what about that test?"

"Oh, that was to see if I was right, hm!" He fiddled with his clay a bit. "I was testing to see if you truly did have the potential to become a shinobi and learn my art. I will admit, you have a long way to go before you can actually learn my art, but I believe you can do it, hm. Anyone else from where you came from would have probably died during that test because they wouldn't have known how to defend themselves or fight back, hm. They wouldn't have the drive to. Yet you had the will to try and live and even wanted to actually kill me. The ability to go through with killing someone is something a shinobi definitely needs, hm."

"And what exactly is your art?" I watched him play with the clay some more. A pinch here, a pinch there. "What does making clay sculptures have to do with fighting?"

"My art," He started then opened his palm. I gasped and jumped back. There was a mouth in his hand! The mouth ate the clay then spat it back out and Deidara squished it quickly into a butterfly. To my amazement it started to fly off! "My art is an explosion!" He smirked and made a sign with his hands. The clay butterfly exploded out in front of us. "Fine art is the beauty of that single fleeting moment of explosion."

'So… His thoughts are more like living in the moment.' I noted in my mind, although I didn't say it out loud. I wasn't sure how he'd take the comparison, and I didn't want to take the chance of being hit for unintentionally insulting his art like Tobi constantly did.

"Ok, so I think this will be my last question for now. What is the Akatsuki?"

"Let's see… The Akatsuki is a group of strong ninjas who hope to bring peace about the shinobi world, hm. At least, that's a summary of our goal. That's why our group was made. I don't know for sure all the details, but I believe that when it was created it was a non-violent group. Eventually though that changed because we started getting attacked. We had no other choice but to fight, hm." He chuckled. "That all happened before I joined though. I have no intentions of bringing peace. I just want to show the world my art, hm!" I nodded then stood up slowly, so I didn't make my wounds worse. "Where are you going?" Deidara asked curiously.

"I'm going back to bed. I need to rest up and heal don't I?" I smiled at him faintly then turned to walk when I noticed a portrait hanging on the wall. I stopped and looked at it. It was of a man in a black suit and tie with skin as pale as snow was white. And there was no face on his head. It was just blank. I turned back to Deidara. "Hey, who is this?" He stood and walked over to see what I was asking about.

"Oh, that's our leader, hm."

"I kept hearing about this Pein guy, I figured he was your leader."

"That's what we want everyone to believe. We all look to Pein as our leader or commander, but this guy here is really the one behind it all, hm." Then he whispered. "Not all of the members know this either though."

"What's his name? Are they going to finish painting his face?"

"He has no real name and he lacks a face; either that or no one has ever seen it. Anyways, they call him the Slenderman. He's a mystery even to most Akatsuki members. I've never met him, hm." I stood and thought a moment then started to head back to my room.

"I'll be in my room the rest of the day." I managed to make it to my room and lay on the bed without stumbling, but the second my body hit the bed I felt heavy as a rock. I welcomed sleep with open arms.

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**A/N:** And slenderman finally makes his first (sort of) appearance! This is actually how it happened in my dream too so, sorry if it seems weird.


	9. Murky Dream

**A/N: **Because I was a day late in updating you all last week (because I try to update every tuesday) I'm going to update one day early this week! :D Yay!  
I'm now working on Chapter 16 so I have plenty of chapters for updating in the future :]

_-Edited out all the crap I was trying to convince myself here that Reika wasn't a mary-sue for this reason and that. XD Finally fixed up the story so that she is less angsty and I feel much better about it now and well... yeah... Edit finished!-_

Enjoy the next chapter!

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**Chapter Nine: Murky Dream**

I found myself surrounded by a mist, barely able to even seen my hand in front of my face.

"_Where am I?" _My voice echoed and danced through the air. Everything was dull and silent around me. _"Hello!? Is anyone there?"_ I cried out. No answer.

"_Waaahuhh!"_

There was a cry coming from somewhere but the echo made it impossible to figure out where.

"_Hello!?" _I called out again. _"Are you hurt? Is there something wrong? Where are you?"_ The crying continued without an answer. _"Damn it. I can't just sit here when someone could be in danger!"_ Ignoring the fact that I couldn't see where I was going, I ran in a random direction hoping to find the source of the crying. After a while of running, I stopped for a moment to catch my breath and listened for the cries to see if I'd gotten closer. I heard a sniffle close by to my left and turned my head quickly. Squinting my eyes against the fog, I could make out a small figure crouched on the ground. I stepped towards them. _"Hey there, are you alright?" _I knelt down and cupped their shoulder with my hand. The little body jumped, startled, then turned their head to look at me with their tear worn eyes. _"It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you."_ I smiled gently at them. Now able to see a little clearer, I realized that it was a female child with short blond hair. _"What's wrong? Why are you crying little girl?"_ I asked. Her lower lip trembled, threatening to let out more cries.

"_My parents are gone." _She mumbled.

"_So you're lost? Did your parents say where they were going?"_

"_I'm not lost. My parents are… are…" _Her voice choked up with tears and a wave of sobbing followed. _"They're dead." _The girl turned away again and continued to cry. My first instinct was to ask her what had happened, but instead I wrapped my arms around her and said,

"_I'm sorry. You don't have to be alone anymore though, I'm here to help you."_ She gently stood up, breaking free of my arms and turned around to face me. I stood up as she turned and our eyes met. Something about this girl was familiar to me but before I could open my mouth to ask her anything, two large pale hands grabbed her shoulders. I looked up and saw a tall dark figure hovering over her. Then two more arms wrapped around her waist and dragged her back into the fog as she screamed.

"_Hey! Wait, let her go!" _I yelled and ran after them. _"What the hell was that?"_

I tripped and fell hard onto the ground. Pushing myself up from the cold ground I looked around for the little girl and the creature that'd taken her.

"_W-What the hell's going on?"_ I stood up. I was no longer outside in a fog, but instead was in a house. It looked like a living room; wooden floors, a low table in the middle, a few other tables with plants and decorations on them, and pictures on the walls. I rubbed my head. _"How did I… When did…Where am I?"_ I walked around the house, through the rooms, bathrooms, kitchen, every room looking for someone. Somehow, this all looked familiar. _"Is anyone here? Hello? I need some help."_ I called out. I found myself walking back into the living room when a smell assaulted my nose.

"_Blood?"_

Only then did I realize that the little blond headed girl was sitting crouched on the other side of the table looking down at the ground. _"Hey, little girl there you are! Are you alr—" _I stepped towards her and froze as she stood and turned quickly towards me. Her hands were covered in blood and some had splattered onto her terrified face. In front of her were two bloodied bodies, still and cold.

"_They're dead!"_ She cried out. _"My parents, they're dead!" _Then her eyes widened and her body shook with fear as she started to scream, a scream so powerful that it threw me against the wall and shattered the windows. I covered my ears in pain and watched as her body fell limp against the floor. Even after she fell, her scream still lingered and I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my chest. The room, the bodies, the walls, _everything_ started to blur and phase out, leaving me out in the mist once again. I lowered my hands from my ears as the lingering scream dissipated into the air.

_Tap_

_Tap Tap_

_Tap_

Footsteps. Running around me. All around me. Circling like predators.

"_Who's there?!"_ I frantically looked around, seeing dark shadows through the mist, but unable to make out a form or face. A sharp pain surged through my ankle and I looked down. '_A needle!?'_ A large needle was buried deeply into my skin. Then, all at once, about thirty other similar needles flew towards me, cutting, piercing and digging into my body painfully. I screamed out but no sound came out. There was a needle lodged right into my throat blocking off my airway. The pain was excruciating. Every move I made, every muscle that twitched would send fresh waves of pain from every spot a needle had hit throughout my body. I collapsed onto the ground hoping to lessen the pain but it was no good. Even the blood running through my veins caused the wounds to ache.

"_You're in so much pain, aren't you?"_ A familiar voice in front of me asked. I lifted my head and saw an outstretched hand.

"_Livia?"_ I mouthed and lifted my hand towards hers. I felt the needles being pulled out of my skin and turned my head. It was Tamara. She looked up at me and smiled a sad smile, then returned to removing the painful needles. A sharp but short pain shot through my neck as Livia yanked the needle out of my throat. I coughed and yelled out, blood trickling out of my mouth and down my neck.

"_Even when you aren't physically injured you hurt," _She grabbed my hand. _"I'm right, aren't I? You hurt because of the memories. You hurt because you're lost. And you're lost because there's no one you can trust."_ Tamara walked over and stood beside her as Livia helped me up and held the side of my arms above my elbows. _"But now we're here for you."_ Livia's voice started to deepen and echo. _"Now you don't have to ever __**remember those painful memories of your past that haunt you."**_ Her voice was now deep, like a demon's voice.

"_What the…." _I stared at Livia and her face vanished. Just a blank head with hair, no nose or mouth or even ears. My body shook and I glanced over at Tamara. The same thing had happened to her. I screamed and pushed Livia away, then ran in the opposite direction, confused out of my mind.

"_**Wake up. Wake up. WAKE UP!" **_It sounded like a chant swirling around me while I ran and without any warning, the faceless two I'd left behind me appeared in front of me. My feet skidded to a halt, ready to turn away but I was too slow. Faceless Tamara grabbed one arm as the faceless Livia latched onto the other, and at the same time they raised their free arms, balled their hands into fists, and hurled them at my face. _**"WAKE UP!"**_

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" I closed my eyes and thrashed my arms around, trying to defend myself against their fists.

"Reika! REIKA!" A different voice called out. "Reika, wake up!" I felt my body being shaken and opened my eyes. My heart was racing and my breathing was heavy as I looked around. Deidara was looking at me worriedly. There was a bruise on his cheek.

"W-What's going on, where am… am I?" I panted.

"Finally, you're awake, hm!" He sighed wearily. "You're in your room in bed, you were having some sort of nightmare. Zetsu saw you thrashing around on the camera and told me so I came to see what was wrong." He leaned back against the wall and let out a long breath, gently touching his cheek. As my heart steadied and breathing returned to normal I realized that I was the one who'd bruised his cheek. I must have hit him while I was still asleep.

"I'm sorry." I looked down. My hair and pillow were soaked with sweat. 'What an awful nightmare…'

"Don't worry about it, hm!" He grinned. "It didn't hurt at all. That's some punch you've got there though." I faked a smile. "You should get some more rest." He started towards the door. "It's almost morning and tomorrow your training begins, hm."

He left the room and I sat there motionless. I couldn't go back to sleep even if I'd wanted to. There was no way. So I just sat there, trying to get rid of the awful images until morning came.

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**A/N:** Hmm... the faces in those dreams seem quite peculiar do they not? :D


	10. Training begins

**A/N:** Oh my gosh I did it again! Q_Q I forgot to update on Tuesday so I'm 2 days late! I'm so sorry! That means I will update 2 days earlier next time! :D

Ok, I kind of like this chapter XD It starts to add in a little bit of mystery.

OH! Random note, in a recent chapter of Naruto, one of the characters brought back with Edo Tensei used a jutsu called, "Reika no Jutsu". I was so surprised, Reika's name isn't supposed to be Japanese in my fanfiction, so to find out Reika means something in japanese surprised me. Yeah. Just so ya know, total coincidence!

Enjoy the next chapter!

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**Chapter Ten: Training begins**

Tobi walked in with a tray of food and saw that I was sitting at the desk in the corner of the room. He set it down on the small table.

"You're up early." He commented. His voice seemed unusually calm and non-comedic.

"I guess you could say that." I replied dully. My mouth was dry and I didn't feel like talking. "Did you bring any water?"

"Tea." He answered, taking the cup from the tray and bringing it over to me. I grabbed it and sipped slowly. It was warm and tasted bitter. Gross. I forced it down figuring it was better to have a nasty taste in my mouth than to have that nagging dryness that had been bothering me since I had woken up hours ago. "Senpai told me that you'd woken up screaming last night." Tobi started. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." I lied. Then I turned to him. "Why did Deidara tell you?" I didn't really have a reason for asking that, I just simply did.

"Well, actually," He began. "When he came back to the room he turned on the lights and it woke me up. I was about to complain because I was still tired, but then I saw this huge bruise on his cheek and asked what'd happened. While he was putting on a bandage he told me about how you were thrashing around in your sleep and how you wouldn't wake up no matter how hard he tried."

"I didn't hit him too hard did I?" an overwhelming sense of guilt filled inside of me. Even though these people had taken me from my home I still didn't like the thought of hurting someone like that.

"Not at all!" Tobi said cheerfully. He went back to being his normal self. "Deidara-senpai is strong! I doubt it even hurt him!" I smirked a bit to myself, trying to hold back a snicker.

'It's almost like Tobi has a little boy crush on Deidara!' I held in my laughter.

"Well, anyways, Deidara will be waiting for you in the training room." He walked to the door.

"Where's the training room?" I asked. I didn't remember seeing one since I'd gotten here.

"It's that big one that you saw Deidara-senpai and me in! You've been in there a few times remember? You sure you're alright? I didn't think you'd forget such a big room!"

"Oh, right. No, I'm fine, I remember." I nodded. Then he walked out of the room. I thought about what I should do before I went out to the training room. 'Definitely a shower.' I looked over at the food. I hadn't eaten anything in about four days, but my appetite was still gone, especially after that night. I decided that I would shower and then go train with Deidara.

After a quick shower I went straight to the training room where Deidara greeted me. He started his lesson by telling me all about techniques and jutsu, and how everyone had chakra flowing through their body that enabled them to execute these amazing jutsu. He told me that that was how he was able to make his clay explode. By chewing the clay, whether with his own mouth or the ones in his hands, he was able to mend his chakra into it. After telling me the basics he had me stand up straight, put my hands together in a sign, and told me to try and focus my chakra into my hands. My first few attempts failed and after a while I felt like I would never be able to do this.

"Alright, how about we take a break?" Deidara said, the frustration in his voice obvious as he rubbed his head. I sighed and my heart felt heavy with failure. I sat cross legged on the ground where I had been standing and watched as Zetsu appeared from the ground in front of Deidara. They stood talking for a while, and I could tell by Deidara's face that the news Zetsu brought wasn't cheerful or good. He looked a bit surprised and frustrated at the same time. It only made me feel like even more of a failure because I figured he was just frustrated with me and was taking it out on Zetsu. A feeling of anger and determination suddenly surged through my body and I stood up, taking the stance he'd told me to take earlier.

"I can do this!" I muttered to myself. "I have to do this!" I closed my eyes and focused as hard as I could on my hands, envisioning the chakra traveling into my fingers, willing it all to amass in my hands. He said that if I accomplished this, I'd be able to actually see the chakra seeping out and surrounding my hands. It was hard for me to believe that pure energy could become visible, but it didn't stop me from trying. I started to feel my hands tingle but didn't dare open my eyes to look, afraid that I'd lose my concentration. Instead I interrupted Deidara's conversation. "Deidara!" I called out.

"What do you wa—" He started angrily then stopped. I figured he'd turned around already so I asked,

"Am I doing it right? Can you see my chakra? I don't want to look because I don't want to lose my focus."

"What kind of chakra is that…? It's green!" He said quietly.

"It looks like… Nature chakra." I heard Zetsu say.

"How is that possible?" Deidara asked him. "That can't be! Nature chakra is blue, not green. Besides, Nature chakra isn't supposed to be a human's inner chakra! She wouldn't be able to survive with Nature chakra inside her!"

"I don't know, but it has the same feeling as Nature chakra does." Zetsu replied. "This is definitely interesting. Perhaps it is fate that you chose her. Maybe she has some hidden potential we didn't see. I will talk to Pein about this and see if I can find any sort of explanation or past incidents like this."

"Right. Thanks Zetsu, I'd definitely like to know how this is possible, hm."

"In the meantime Deidara, you better report in. Lord Pein wouldn't be very pleased if you slacked off on your orders."

"Deidara?" I called out again. I'd heard their conversation but didn't quite understand.

"Good job Reika, you did it!" He quickly changed the tone of his voice to be more cheerful. "Go ahead and try to see it, open your eyes." I did as he said and opened my eyes, looking down at my hands. I was amazed! It _was_ possible to see chakra! Within seconds of seeing it however, my amazement broke my concentration and the chakra dissipated. I frowned. "Don't look so down Reika, you completed what I asked you to, hm!" I looked over and saw that Zetsu had disappeared. "I'd start you on your next training activity, but something has come up and Tobi and I have to leave for a small while. Why don't you continue practicing focusing your chakra? Try… Your feet this time! You're going to need to know how to focus your chakra into your feet so you can stand on water and climb vertical walls, hm!" And with that he started to walk off.

"W-Wait!" I yelled. He stopped and looked back. "What's going on?"

"A couple of our members, Kakuzu and Hidan, have been killed. They were defeated in battle, so I have to check in with Lord Pein and the others to discuss what our next plan will be. It won't take long, don't worry." Then he turned and I heard him mutter. "That Jinchuuriki's becoming even more of a nuisance…"

'Jinchuuriki?' I thought as I watched him leave the training room. Deciding to ask him about the meeting later, I switched my attention back to my training. This sense of determination not to fail was strange to me. I realized I wasn't determined just for myself. I was determined not to fail Deidara, the one who had kidnapped me. Why I wanted to be a success in his eyes was far beyond my comprehension, but I continued training diligently while he was away.

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**A/N:** Ok, I know Reika seems mary-sue like with this mysterious chakra, but I have something planned for it. Plus, the main characters need a little bit of specialness to make them interesting right? Q_Q _*is in denial*_ (besides, Ive read alot of fanfictions lately that are FILLED and OVERFLOWING with mary-sueness! ...Including fanfiction I used to write in Middle School... Oh glob, those were so bad... so compared to those, Reika is alot better! XD)

Next update will be on Sunday! :D


	11. The Meeting

**A/N: **Ok, like I promised, I'm updating two days early to make up for the two days that I was late last week. XD

First important thing about this chapter: **It is in Deidara's point of view**

I won't often do POV swaps, but I needed to in this case. There may or may not be a few more chapters in different POV's.

Second, and **_the most important thing_** about this chapter! I marked on here with **(*)** to signify where I started using actual quotes from the actual anime and I used the same sign to signify where I stopped. You will see where, but I want to clarify _(like I really need to? Everyone knows this isnt my series)_ that **Naruto (c) Masashi Kishimoto** and I am simply writing this for my own amusement.

So now, you may all enjoy the next chapter!

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**Chapter Eleven: The Meeting**

_(This chapter is in Deidara's Point of View)_

"Hey, Tobi hurry up!" I yelled, walking into our room. "Jeez, what an annoying partner."

"Hold on Senpai! Wait for me!" Tobi yelled, clumsily running into the room after me.

"Hurry up, idiot! If we're late Lord Pein won't be very happy."

"Alright alright! Ready Senpai!" Tobi scratched his mask with a finger. "Eehhh… But, Senpai… Why do we have to be in our room for the meeting? It doesn't matter where we are when he calls us."

"Idiot!" I yelled at him even though I knew he didn't deserve it. He was right. I hadn't told him my reason yet so it's only natural for him to be confused. "I have a few things to talk to Lord Pein about, things concerning Reika so I didn't want her to hear."

"Oooh?" Tobi stepped toward me. "Don't tell me! You're gonna confess your love for her aren't you?" He made a dramatic motion with his arms. "You're gonna tell Pein-sama that you don't wanna put your beloved Reika's life in danger!" Then he lowered his head and whispered. "Oh Deidara-senpai, you're so naughty!"

"I-IDIOT!" I screamed at him and hit him on the head as hard as I could. My face was burning with embarrassment. "What the hell is your problem, idiot!?" I would have blown him up with a bomb right then if we weren't inside. "Don't go making up stories like that! It pisses me off! This is important, don't joke around, hm!" Tobi looked up from the ground and said,

"Oh Senpai, your face is all red! Are you embarra—"

_**BAM!**_

I stepped on his head and smashed it into the ground, then continued to stomp on his head repeatedly until I suddenly felt an energy in the room.

"Hey, Tobi! Get up, Lord Pein's calling us."

"O-Ow Senpai, you're so mean." Tobi complained standing up. We stood still, made the signs with our hands and closed our eyes until we found our minds in the cave where we extracted the Bijuu from their vessels. Once everyone was present, Zetsu announced to everyone that Hidan and Kakuzu had been defeated in battle.

"That's surprising." Kisame commented blankly. "Those two were practically an undefeatable team, with Hidan's immortality and Kakuzu's multiple hearts." I nodded in agreement. I'd been surprised when Zetsu had told me and I didn't entirely believe it was possible. Our discussion continued as Lord Pein gave us our orders and instructions and Zetsu gave us further information.

"So the ones who killed Hidan's team back then were…" Kisame started.

"They were people from Konoha." White Zetsu finished for him. Then Black Zetsu added, "It was Kakashi and the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki's platoon."

"That platoon is strong, isn't it?" Tobi asked. "They punched Deidara-san full of holes too."

His unnecessary comment infuriated me and I quickly turned to yell at him.

"Tobi! You asshole, just say another word! My patience container is about to explode, hm!"

"Easy, easy, easy." Tobi chuckled. "If your patience container is a bag of your patience, Deidara-san, then like your bag of exploding clay, you'd just shred it to pieces immediately."

"Damn you, Tobi! I'll kill—"

"Deidara, calm down." Lord Pein stepped in. "You'll only prove Tobi right."

"Tch!" I turned away from Tobi. Tobi started laughing.

"I made Senpai angry. Ahaha—"

"And Tobi, you're always saying too much." Lord Pein interrupted his laughter. "You're angering your Senpai." Tobi cheerfully raised his hand and replied,

"Yes, I'm sorry!"

Irritated, I reluctantly listened through the rest of what needed to be discussed then left the discussion. I knew Tobi would leave right after me, so I stood there in our room waiting, ready to kick his ass for his idiocy. I saw his head start to turn toward me and without giving him even a second to react, I kicked him in the head and sent him smashing into the wall.

"IDIOT!" I screamed. "I'll blow you to hell!" I didn't care where we were, I was so infuriated with him that I dug my hands into my clay pouches and was ready to throw some bombs at him when I suddenly realized I'd forgotten something. "Shit! I forgot to ask Lord Pein about Reika. Damn it Tobi! You asshole, you made me forget! You're lucky I don't kill you right now!" Tobi rubbed his head as I turned to open the door. "I need to find Zetsu." I ran around the building looking for Zetsu, hoping that he hadn't left yet. When I finally came to Kakuzu's former office, Zetsu was there looking at the papers that were sprawled all over his desk.

"Oh Deidara," Zetsu looked at me. "Did you come to pay your respects to Kakuzu?"

"No, I came to ask a favor." I replied hurriedly. "Do you think you can go to Lord Pein and ask him to contact me again so that I can talk to him about Reika's strange chakra? I meant to ask at the meeting earlier but that damned Tobi distracted me." I gritted my teeth in anger. 'That idiot!'

"Ah, no problem. It won't take me long. Just wait for his call." I nodded and he disappeared through the floor.

"I hope he gets back to me quickly. I'm curious." I sat in Kakuzu's chair, deciding to wait here until I was called. "Oh well. There's nothing I can do but wait. I'm sure Zetsu will get there soon. He's able to travel faster than anyone here."

I waited about ten minutes or so before I felt Lord Pein calling to me. 'Damn, Zetsu really is fast.' I closed my eyes and found myself back in the cave. Lord Pein's projection was standing in front of me.

"You wanted to ask me something?" He asked.

"Yeah, it has to do with the girl I've taken on as my disciple." I replied. He stood silently and waited for more information. "Today we started training her. I'm sure you know by now that she was taken from the 'other world' so she isn't familiar with the shinobi world or anything having to do with chakras and jutsu." He nodded. "Well, her training today was to focus her chakra into her hands so she could see it and would actually believe it was possible. It took her a while, but when she finally did it… Her chakra… It was different." Lord Pein looked interested when I said that.

"How so?" He questioned.

"Well, first off, it was green. Not blue like normal chakra." His eyes looked curious but they were hard to read. "Zetsu was with me and he said it felt like Nature chakra… but… How could that be? How could someone survive with Nature chakra as their natural chakra?"

"That is odd." He said coolly. "I've never heard of that happening, but stranger things have appeared before, so I don't doubt that there is an explanation. I'll send a few groups to see if we can find anything out."

"Really?" I tried to contain my excitement. "Thanks Lord Pein, hm!"

"Of course." He turned away and was about to disappear when he looked back and added, "Looks like we might have found ourselves another talented member… That is, depending on how well she's trained." He turned his head away. "You can remain her primary sensei, but I will be assigning other gifted members like Itachi to teach her different types of jutsu. Perhaps she can even learn Genjutsu. If she is to become skilled enough to join the Akatsuki, she must catch up and learn as much as she can about the Shinobi world quickly."

"Right…" I nodded and he left. I was back in Kakuzu's room. I didn't like what Lord Pein had said to me at the end. Reika was supposed to be _my_ disciple, _my_ student, to learn _my_ techniques. I didn't want to have a student I couldn't teach. It really pissed me off that he mentioned Itachi. I punched the table in front of me. "Damn it!" The name alone pissed me off. Those mocking eyes, always making fun of my art! He didn't deserve to teach the same student as I was! Even though his art is respectable, it isn't true art, and it's insulting! That Uchiha bastard!

"Oh, Deidara-senpai there you are!" Tobi ran in and tripped, banging his head on the table. "Ouch ouch ouch…" he rubbed his head and stood back up. I glared at him.

"What do you want you idiot?!" I snapped, in no mood to put up with his brainlessness.

"Ehehe… Well, I just wanted to tell you Reika is still out in the training room practicing." He looked out the door as if looking at Reika. "She seems to have gotten the hang of it. Before I found you she was running around on the ceiling. Hahaha, she seems funny. I like her! I think she'll be good company, don't yo—… Eh, Senpai? Senpai, where are you going? Senpai!?"

"Tobi…" I mumbled, aggravated as I walked past him and out of the room. "You talk too much."

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**A/N**: Ok, so before I get flammed with all the mary sue stuff, I wanted to say, that little bit in there with Tobi saying stuff about Deidara liking Reika was my friend's idea and I thought it would be fun to have Tobi mess with Deidara some more. It's quite amusing!

I think that's all I really have to say about this chapter. See you all next week! ...Reviews would be nice as well...


	12. Pleasant Distraction

******A/N:**Haha _WARNING! Mary-sueness alert! _Sorry for it but hey, I've got to put a little fluff in there every once and a while! XD

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**Chapter Twelve: Pleasant Distraction**

I was focusing on running around on the ceiling when I saw Deidara walk into the training room. I smiled and yelled,

"Deidara! Look what I can d—" Crap! My focus broke from my chakra and my feet disconnected from the ceiling. I started falling. 'Shit! There's no way I can land right!' I closed my eyes and suddenly felt my body hit… Not the ground, but something else. I opened my eyes and saw that Deidara had jumped under me just in time for me to smash into him. "Ah! I'm sorry!" I quickly got up.

"Ooow. Damn, by the way Tobi was talking it sounded like you'd mastered that technique." He stood up and rubbed his back. "But it's obvious you still have a hard time focusing on that while doing something else. You're going to need to learn to multitask!" His voice was surprisingly irritated and I shrunk back as he yelled. I failed again. He looked at me and sighed, then straightened up. "Anyways! From now on, you will call me Sensei because you need to show respect to your teacher, hm!" He stood there and glanced over waiting. I sat there obliviously. He smacked the back of my head.

"Ow! Hey!" I yelled.

"It's disrespectful not to respond to your Sensei when he addresses you, hm!" He snapped.

"Oh! Yes Sensei!" I automatically bowed when I said that, remembering that in some places that was a sign of respect. I stood straight again and saw that I'd done the right thing by bowing.

"Right, so now we will make this training a little harder. You will be doing this on water, and then once you get used to standing on water, you will learn to multitask by dodging my bombs while still running on top of the water!" He turned and started walking, motioning for me to follow. I fell in line behind him as he led me to my next training area.

The next few hours were probably some of the roughest, longest hours of my life. It was difficult enough to learn how to stand on an unstable surface, let alone run around on it dodging _bombs! _I kept falling in and getting soaked, then got yelled at and criticized by Deidara, just to start the whole cycle over again the second I got balanced on the water. I felt hopeless! There was no way I could learn how to do this the way he was teaching me.

"S-Sensei…" I panted, climbing out of the pond we were training at. "I'm t-too tired. Can we stop for the day?" I tried catching my breath.

"Complaining will get you nowhere, hm!" He shouted. This time I really didn't want to continue training so instead I glared up at him and yelled back,

"Training me until I pass out will get me nowhere!" I stood up breathing hard, not breaking eye contact with Deidara. We glared at each other for a while until eventually he looked away.

"Tch…" he grunted and turned away. "Fine. You get your way this time, but tomorrow we are going to train until you get that mastered, hm." I breathed out gratefully and took a step forward but my knees buckled and I fell. My arms and legs felt exhausted.

"Man, you have no stamina at all." He knelt down and threw one of my arms over his shoulder then helped me up, letting me use him for support.

"Not my fault that I've been pushed past my limit." I spat back. He chuckled halfheartedly and replied,

"What a disrespectful student, hm." We walked back to the cave and I looked back. The sun was setting, and sudden dread filled me. I was actually really grateful for the intense training; it had distracted my mind from that horrid dream I'd had. Now that the sun was setting though, with how tired I was I would definitely fall asleep tonight. But I was scared. I didn't want to have that same experience again. My pace had slowed down while I thought and a voice brought me back. "Hey, you alright?" Deidara was looking at me worriedly. "Do you see something over there?" He looked in the direction I had been looking.

"No." I lied. "I was just looking at the sunset." I picked up my pace and soon we reached the training room.

"Can you make it back to your room on your own?" He asked, taking my arm off his shoulders.

"Yeah." I replied, not wanting to go.

"Alright. Night then." He turned away and started walking to his room. "Be sure to be up early for training! No breaks tomorrow, hm." I stood there in place as he continued walking. I thought about what I should do instead of go to bed.

'Maybe I could just sit here all night. Yeah, that's what I'll do…'

"Hey, are you going to go to bed?" Again his voice brought me back. He had turned back around to look at me. I looked over my shoulder at the hallway to my room but my body shook. I was too scared to go. I just couldn't do it! I continued to avoid eye contact with Deidara, afraid he might see the fear in my eyes. "Reika, what's wrong? And don't just say nothing, because I can tell something's on your mind." He demanded an answer. The truth.

Not able to contain it anymore, my eyes started to water and I let my body slump down to the ground. I opened my mouth to speak but no voice came out.

'_Reika suck it up!' _Livia spoke. She was controlling my voice and wouldn't let me speak. _'You can't let him see you acting weak! People always take advantage of that!'_

I shook my head and covered my mouth with my hand, trying to muffle the sobs trying to escape. Tears threatened to fall from my eyes. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up. Deidara had knelt down in front of me with a concerned look on his face.

"Tell me what's wrong." He demanded again. This time I pushed Livia back and opened my mouth to try again. I barely managed to squeak out,

"I-I'm scared…" My voice was trembling.

"Of what?" He asked. This time I had no problem speaking, and my sobs burst through wave after wave.

"I'm scared of being alone!" My voice was loud now. "I don't want to have a dream like that again! I'm afraid of it. It was terrifying! It was painful!" Then I whispered. "I was all alone…" After that, my crying drowned my words and all the emotions I had bottled up since arriving here came pouring out all at once. Deidara stood and took my hand in his. It surprised me so much that the tears halted immediately and I looked up at him. He had a warm smile on his face.

"Well then," He started. "You won't have to be alone tonight, hm. Come on." He pulled me up and I followed him dumbly behind, not really conscious of everything.

'What is this?' I thought as I watched Deidara walking. My hand was still in his. I felt my heart lift, and the weight of the fear disappeared. 'He's not yelling at me for crying… for being weak. He isn't disappointed that I'm not stronger? But everyone else… everyone else that I cried to before just made fun of me and left… Why is he… not just leaving me?' I saw the door to his room getting closer. A revelation hit me. 'This is what I've always wanted. I've wanted someone to help me, to see that I'm not always as strong as I pretend to be. I've wanted someone to accept me. And here is someone doing exactly that.' I tightened my grip on his hand slightly. Even if he isn't a friend, I accepted his kindness, grateful that at least for this night I didn't have to face my fears alone.

'_Reika don't follow him!' _Livia struggled to try and stop me. _'You can't trust these people! What if he—'_

I tuned her out and pushed her far back into my mind, ensuring that she wouldn't take control. I was too relieved to let her ruin my peace. When we entered the room, Tobi was sitting up in his bed. He looked at us and looked like he was about to say something but Deidara gave him a look that said, _'Say one damn thing and I'll tear you to shreds"_.

"Tobi," Deidara said bluntly. "You're sleeping on the floor!"

"Whaaaat?!" Tobi whined. "But Senpai—"

"No buts Tobi!" Deidara snapped. Tobi obeyed and made a makeshift bed on the floor.

"Deidara-senpai, is Reika sleeping in here with us tonight?" He questioned excitedly.

"Yes Tobi." He looked at me and gestured to the bed. "You can sleep in Tobi's bed tonight. He won't bother you unless you hate loud snoring." Deidara smiled jokingly and I smiled back.

"I don't snore…" Tobi pouted and watched as I walked over to his bed.

"Sorry Tobi for taking your bed." I said to him. He rubbed the back of his head.

"I don't mind!" He sat cross-legged and asked, "Are you going to be staying in here from now on Reika-san?"

"Tobi, shut up!" Deidara groaned. He'd already thrown off his cloak and had gotten into his bed.

"Probably not, Tobi." I answered and Tobi laughed. I laid down comfortably and my body felt warm. I fell asleep after both Deidara and Tobi had. Deidara was right. Tobi does snore. Loudly.

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**A/N: **Ok, so I don't really have much to say... er, more like I cant think straight because Im surrounded by annoying, screaming, loud family. =_= It's hard to think. Umm... Well, I hope the Mary-Sueness didnt bother anyone too much. Im working hard on making this more interesting, and I've realized that it's going along too slowly, so Im going to start speeding up the story so it will be done sooner and wont have a million chapters *_* neeeeeh, hope you enjoyed! See you all next Tuesday!

Reviews much appreciated.


	13. Strict Sensei

**A/N:** Sorry everyone that Im a day late updating! The reason is because my computer is crap and the charger was broken, and because this computer's battery life is literally 2 minutes off the charger, I couldnt use my computer yesterday! (lucky for me, I found another charger that works! yay!)

Anywho! I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

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**Chapter Thirteen: Strict Sensei**

"Aaaaaaahh~" I yawned, stretching. My muscles ached from all the training but in a good way and my sleep had been peacefully undisturbed. I looked over at Deidara and saw he was still sleeping. I hadn't realized last night, but he had taken his hair down. Strangely, having his long hair down instead of up in a ponytail made him look less feminine. I stifled a laugh and looked down expecting to see Tobi, but when I leaned over he wasn't there. 'Odd.' I thought. 'With how loud he was snoring, I figured he'd be the type to sleep in late.'

Deidara shuffled under his blanket and groaned as he sat up and stretched.

"Good morning." He yawned. "Eh? Where'd Tobi g—"

"GOOOOOD MORNING!" Tobi came bursting into the room, holding a couple of trays with food. He twirled around and set the trays down on a table nearby. "I brought you both breakfast!"

"Tobi! Don't be so loud!" Deidara yelled and threw his pillow at Tobi.

"Oh, Senpai, you want to have a pillow fight?!" Tobi laughed catching the pillow. "Ok! Here I come!" He held the pillow up and started hitting Deidara with it. I couldn't contain my laughter. It was obvious that Tobi enjoyed making Deidara angry, and I had to admit, watching Deidara struggle to hit Tobi while dodging the pillow was hilarious! "On guard! Olé!" Tobi kept yelling. Eventually Deidara managed to snatch the pillow back and shoo Tobi away from him, then glared at me for laughing so much. He got up and walked over to the tray of food, grabbing a bowl of noodles and a cup of tea.

"Thanks for bringing the food Tobi." He said quietly. Tobi saluted and replied,

"Tobi is a good boy!"

"Reika are you going to eat?" He asked me, sitting on the floor with his food. "If you don't hurry and eat, I'll make you skip breakfast for training and you'll go hungry for the day, hm."

"I'm not really that hungry today." I said, and then got up to sit in front of Deidara. I figured he would probably start lecturing me on today's training while he ate. He looked up at me from his bowl.

"You not feeling well?" He asked.

"She usually doesn't eat, Senpai!" Tobi jumped in cheerfully. "She's never eaten any of the food I've brought in at least." Deidara coughed and looked at him, then looked at me.

"What?!" He yelled. "You haven't eaten at all since you've been here?!" He looked angry. "You didn't even find any lunch or anything?"

"No, I haven't." I answered quietly. His reaction to the news had me feeling uneasy. Without warning I felt the back of his hand crash into my face and I went flying into the wall. I was in complete shock as I looked up from the ground at Deidara's face. The rage that filled his eyes terrified me.

"You idiot!" He screamed. Then he walked over, picked me up by the back of my shirt, pushed me over to the table and sat me down. "Now, you're going to eat, hm! You're going to eat all of this, and the rest of mine you got that!?"

"But I don—"

"No buts!" He put his bowl on the tray with all the rest of the food. "From now on, I'm going to have someone make sure that you eat your breakfast every morning, no matter what, until you start to voluntarily eat!"

'_This bastard!' _Livia growled. She forced me to sit still and not eat, defiantly. She hated being told what to do. _'Who the hell does he think he is, bossing us around like that! Bastard!'_

"If you don't start eating soon, I'll hit you again! And I'll continue to beat you until you do!" He pushed my face closer to the food and didn't remove his hand. I forced Livia back and lifted my hand to start eating the food. The first few bites were hard to force down because I had no appetite, but once it hit my stomach I began to feel the emptiness that was there after five days without food and started eating faster. In no time I was scarfing down the food gratefully and even drank the nasty tea without complaint. I finished it all, only half satisfied and just sat there waiting for Deidara to tell me what to do. I didn't want to get hit again.

"Good." His voice was calmer. "Now, get ready and meet me at the pond. Training will be even harder today." I turned and saw he had put his cloak back on. He stopped and whispered something to Tobi, but I couldn't hear what, then he left the room. Tobi left soon after, and I was left alone.

"Might as well get going." I said to myself gloomily, then stood up and headed out. Once again I was put through the cycle of rigorous training and complete failure. Deidara was hot-headed and impatient with me and he only got angrier every time I fell into the water. Not to mention that instead of aiming _near_ me with his exploding clay, now he was aiming _at_ was a long day, and I expected it to continue forever even if I learned to stay above the water.

I started to slowly improve and managed to dodge a few bombs without falling through the water. Every failure only further fueled my determination to succeed in what my teacher was trying to teach me. Once I'd gotten a hang of dodging without losing my footing, he then started sending surprise attacks to sharpen my senses.

"You're going to need to interpret your opponent's movements!" He informed me. "They will always have a trick or two up their sleeves, and they may lure you into a trap or a false sense of security, hm!" Training got much harder once he started throwing in his tricks and I was amazed at my own abilities to dodge them once I caught on. Using chakra made it possible to do things I never thought possible! I could walk on water, run faster, jump higher, all sorts of things that before were only something I fantasized about being able to do.

"Stay focused!" Deidara yelled, noticing my movements start to slow down. A bomb exploded in the water next to me as I quickly skid away. Then I felt the water under my feet move strangely and looked down.

"Wha—" I started but wasn't able to finish. Deidara had sent a bomb through the water and it exploded under my feet, throwing me into the air. 'Damn it!' I flipped my body around and landed crouched on the water's surface. 'I need to be faster…' I looked around then down into the water to check for any hidden traps. Seeing it temporarily clear, I quickly took advantage of the moment and analyzed what I'd done wrong and what Deidara was trying to teach me. Every second counted so I tried to figure it out fast. 'Deidara sent a bomb towards me but wasn't really aiming at me like usual. He had aimed to my right so that I would jump to my left and get caught by the bomb he had hidden! That's it! He's showing me to look out for attacks that are aimed to lure me into a trap!' I looked over at Deidara, preparing to dodge any bombs he had readied, but instead he turned away and started to walk away.

'Where is he going?' I thought and stood up. 'Did I do something wrong? Is he disappointed in how I reacted? That I didn't notice at first?' Frowning, I stood there waiting, not knowing what else to do but watch my mentor. He turned behind a tree and knelt to grab something. Then he stood back up and walked back holding a couple of boxes wrapped in some sort of cloth. I sighed in relief knowing he wasn't upset and saw him motion for me to come over.

"Let's take a break!" He yelled sitting cross legged on the ground. I walked over, grateful but confused for the break.

'I thought he said there would be no breaks today…' When I sat down he handed me one of the boxes.

"That one is your bento box, hm." He said opening his own. "I had Tobi make some for us." He grabbed his chopsticks and started eating the rice. I didn't question why he had planned lunch. Instead, I unwrapped my box and started eating silently. We ate like that for a while until Deidara broke the silence. "Hey," he started. He rested his hand on the side of his box, chopsticks hovering in his fingers. "Don't ever do that again, ok?" I looked up confused.

"Huh? Do what?"

"Starve yourself." His face was a mix of emotions and I couldn't tell what he was feeling. "If you try to do that again…" He looked at the pond with an empty stare. "… I'll kill you." I froze and a shake went through my spine, but I tried to hide that and took another bite of my food. Without looking up I faked a smile and said,

"If that's what my Sensei wants, then it would be disrespectful of me not to listen." Deidara turned his head back to his food and quickly started eating again. It seemed like the air around us was less tense all of a sudden and Deidara tried to hide a smile with his chewing. 'He's probably smirking at the fact that he got his way.' I thought to myself a bit annoyed then finished the rest of my lunch. Putting the box down I jumped up and enthusiastically said, "Alright! Let's continue training!"

"Hey, I'm still not done with my food!" He groaned. I sat back down impatiently and stared at the pond, imagining what moves he would make next and how I would dodge them. I wanted to get better at dodging and predicting movements. "It's nice though to see you so excited to train." He added quietly as he chewed. "Much different than yesterday, hm. What's made you change your feelings about it?" The question surprised me and I took my gaze away from the pond. The thought had never crossed my mind.

"Well," I started. "At first I was skeptical about all of this ninja stuff. Where I lived, this was all fantasy and I figured this group was just a bunch of crazy people taking fantasy too far. But after learning yesterday how to control my chakra like that, I realized that it was real and it was amazing. And today it continues to amaze me even more seeing how much more agile I can be while using my chakra! I can jump higher, run faster, hell I can even walk on water! These are things I never thought could be possible! Along with all that, I'm learning how to enhance my senses and my thought process with the current training we're doing. I'm learning to predict an enemy's attacks and my reflexes are better than they have ever been before! I'm excited to learn even more and I—… Oh, uh ahem. Sorry." I blushed embarrassed when I realized that I had been babbling and my face grew even redder when I saw Deidara looking at me with an amused look on his face. What a fool I must have looked like. Deidara chuckled. Having finished his food he set the bento box aside and stood up.

"Well then," He smiled. "Let's get to training! And if you do well enough today, I'll start you on some specialized training tomorrow." His last sentence left me curious and more determined to succeed today, so I bolted onto the pond and got ready for his first attack.

The rest of that day consisted of explosions and splashing water without any other breaks. Every time I started to figure out his style, he would change it or toss in an even bigger bomb to throw me off. He once even hid a giant clay centipede under the water while I was dodging, then had it wrap around me when I landed on the water. I had no idea how to get out of that one, and he gave me no mercy. He made the centipede explode point blank, and I went flying across the water like a skipped stone. That's when I learned that I _needed_ to dodge _all_ of his attacks, otherwise I'd be injured. Even though it hurt like hell, learning that kept me on my toes and I didn't allow myself to get caught in another trap like that again. When the sun was nearly set Deidara called me over and we went back to the cave, barely speaking as we walked. I was anxious to know whether I'd done well enough for the new training but didn't want to look too excited for it so I didn't ask. If he wanted to tell me now then he would, otherwise I'd just have to wait and find out.

When we had made it to the training room Deidara turned to walk to his room and said, "Come to my room in the morning. I'm going to make sure that you eat your breakfast, hm."

"Yes Deidara-sensei." I smiled to myself and walked back to my own room. As I lay in bed I thought about the last couple of days. I realized that having Deidara as a teacher meant it was going to be rough training. He showed no mercy and was very short-tempered. He really was a strict teacher.

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**A/N:** Haha woooow Deidara was really violent!

Ok, so my thoughts about Deidara are that they don't really show his personality much in the manga, and that he's actually alot more violent and short-tempered than shown. :D I wanted to try and show that in my story. Deidara is actually alot more caring than he shows, and when he really cares he doesnt really have an easy time showing it so instead it's a bit violent! Plus he's super impatient and very impulsive! Hehe -(That's what I think)

What do you all think? XD  
Reviews welcome!


	14. Forbidden Jutsu

**A/N:** Next Chapter! Whoot!

Before reading, I want to inform everyone that I get much of my information for techniques, characters, and other things like that from Narutopedia (or Naruto Wiki) because obviously I dont know or remember everything about the anime and I want to make this as accurate as I can. XD

So, I say this because in this chapter there is a small "explanation" as to why Deidara has the mouths on his hands, however **it is just a theory**, and for the sake of this fanfic, Im going to use that as the reason. _There is really no real explanation as to what really happened. _(as far as I know.)

Enjoy the chapter! ^-^

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**Chapter Fourteen: Forbidden Jutsu**

The next morning I woke up, took a shower and immediately went to Deidara's room. I was ready to start training, whether it be the special training or a continuation of yesterdays training. I knocked on the door.

"_Come in!"_ Deidara's voice rang out. I opened the door and saw Tobi playing around with some of Deidara's clay. "Hey, Tobi! Stop it!" He warned.

"But Senpai, I'm so bored!" Tobi complained. I walked in, closing the door behind me. A sudden question popped into my head.

"Hey, Deidara-sensei, why is Tobi always here? I understand that you can't leave because you have to train me, but Tobi doesn't have anything to do does he?" Deidara motioned for me to come over where there was a tray of food. My stomach growled at the sight. I'd trained so much yesterday that I'd burned off more than I'd eaten and now I felt even hungrier than ever. As I picked up my food to start eating Deidara answered my question.

"Well, Tobi is my partner so we have to stay near each other, just in case any emergency comes up or we get attacked, hm. It's a pain in the ass really." I looked up at him.

"Partners?" I asked, trying to see how flustered I could make him. I felt the need to laugh today and with his last sentence he set me up for a joke. "In what way… are you two… _Partners_?" He stared back at me blankly at first and then his face turned red and embarrassed.

"N-Not like that!" He yelled.

"Oh but Senpai, wouldn't that be fun~?" Tobi teased. I knew he wasn't serious, he just liked to piss Deidara off.

"T-Tobi shut the hell up you little shit!" He stuffed his mouth with some noodles, face still burning red. I laughed and continued eating.

"It's not like I chose to be partnered up with Tobi anyways." Deidara huffed. "Tobi knows nothing of art and has no appreciation for it. My last partner and I had opposite views on what true art was, but at least his art was respectable, hm. He and I made a great strategic team."

"Who was your last partner?" I listened as I chewed, curious about this partner. "And what happened to him?"

"Sasori no Danna… Eer, in your language, Master Sasori. One of the Hidden Leaf shinobi killed him in battle." He lifted his head up with a small, sad-ish smirk. "Looks like in the end, his art just wasn't as true and pure as mine, hm." We finished eating and Tobi decided to run off because he was bored.

"I'm still kind of hungry." I stated, placing my bowl back on the tray.

"Too bad!" Deidara said. "Training starts now!" He grabbed one of his bags of clay and placed it in front of me. "I'm going to teach you a Kinjutsu from the village I was born in." He raised one of his hands, revealing the grinning mouth on it. "It's one reason I have these, hm. It's a way to mix chakra into the explosive clay I make so that I can create my art!" Every time I got a glimpse of those repulsive mouths in his hands I felt disgusted. I pointed to the one he held up.

"I'm not going to get _those_ on _my _hands am I!? Because if so, I don't want to learn this!" He glared at me and shrugged.

"Who knows? Maybe you will maybe you won't. It's what happened to me." The mouth stuck its nasty tongue out and I shuddered. Disgusting. "What I'm going to teach you is a forbidden Jutsu. Point being, there is a reason for it being forbidden, hm." He stood up. "Whether you like it or not though, you are going to learn it. There's no other way you'd be able to learn my art without this Jutsu. Now come on, we need to be outside for this training; otherwise we'd blow up the hideout." He headed out of the room and I reluctantly followed, my heart beating unsteadily.

'Is he really going to make me do this?' I thought. I looked at the palm of my hand while I walked and wondered what I would do if I were to have mouths on my hands. Would I be rejected by others for it? Would I be able to go back to having a normal life like before? Questions like these raced through my head until we reached our training area. Then Deidara turned and started to speak.

"Alright!" He said. "This is a technique only taught in Iwagakure, the village of my origin. It's a technique that allows the user to knead chakra into materials, therefore making it an even more powerful weapon. I use it to perfect my art, hm." He continued to tell me the reason for the Jutsu then told me to put a piece of clay in my mouth and chew it while concentrating chakra into my teeth. While I did so Deidara showed me a variety of signs that I needed to make with my hands in a certain order. I followed his instructions until he told me to spit the clay out into my hand. "Now, squish it into a ball. For now you will learn the most important part of my art, the explosion, hm. Later I'll show you how to sculpt it into perfection." He lifted his hand which contained a small spider looking sculpture. "Now, watch and follow what I do." He tossed it up into the air and once it was far enough away he signed with his hand and yelled, "Katsu!" The small clay bomb became a huge explosion in the sky. He turned to me smirking. "Go!" I did as he said and threw the rounded piece of clay into the sky and shouted,

"Katsu!"

The piece of clay exploded… into a few smaller pieces. It almost looked like it has just fallen apart instead of exploding. Deidara groaned.

"Tch. Man you're slow!" He complained. "_That's _all you could manage to do? When I first tried, my explosions were far greater! I mastered this technique in no time at all! Maybe you're not cut out to be my stude—"

"I can do this!" I interrupted. A surge of determination spread through my body along with some anger. This guy was chastising me about not being able to do this, yet I only recently learned about this stuff about a week ago and I'm sure he grew up learning it. There's no way I'd be able to match his skills, not even if I lived a hundred years longer than he does. But that fact didn't stop me from wanting so badly to prove him wrong and shove it in his smug little face. "Let me keep trying! I know I can do this!"

It took me a whole week and a half of this training to even begin to show any progress. Each day we would go through the same exact routine. Concentrate my chakra into the clay I was chewing, make the signs with my hands, throw the clay far away and yell 'Katsu'. Over and over again we did this, and over and over again I continued to fail. Then Deidara would stand there frustrated with my lack of skill and would yell at me to try again. I thought this would continue in an endless, pointless cycle until one time Deidara pissed me off so much while I chewed the clay, complaining about how I was making a mockery of his art and how he should have picked someone else to pass his art down to, that I yelled at him,

"Would you _shut up!?_" Energy and anger swelled in my chest. He was frustrating me and distracting me while I was trying to concentrate. I chewed the clay more as a way to relax myself now instead of a way to knead chakra into it. Almost like an angry person chews gum. "You're constant nagging is making me lose my focus and overall is even more annoying to me than Tobi is to you!" Deidara looked shocked for a moment at my unexpected outburst then he grinded his teeth together, so enraged that his eyes grew dark.

"You disrespectful little shit!" He yelled at me, taking a step forward. I held my ground. "I take time away from my art just to teach you, and this is how you act?" His continued to walk towards me, infuriated. "I'll kill you right now! Taking on a student only stifles my creativity anyways, hm!" His tone was serious and I panicked as he lessened the distance between us.

'Shit, he's serious!' I thought quickly looking around. 'Damn it, what do I do? There's no way I can beat him…" He was now within a yard from me, starting to reach out his arms to grab me. Panicked, I acted on instinct, spat the piece of clay in my mouth out into my hand, and threw it into the air right in front of our faces.

"Katsu!" I yelled, hoping that it would at least distract him long enough for me to get away. A flicker of light shone from the small mass of clay and in a flash it burst point blank into a large explosion. It was nothing like Deidara's of course, but much better than any of my previous failures. I heard Deidara gasp slightly then a huge wave of fire, air and debris hit me and sent me flying across the ground. I landed hard, and my breath was knocked out of me. Everything went so fast yet so slow at the same time that I was left disoriented and confused for what seemed like minutes when in reality it was merely a second. I lifted my head and put my hand down to lift myself off the ground when a searing pain shocked my body. I looked at my hand and noticed it was burnt. 'I must have lifted my arms to protect myself from the explosion without realizing it.' I thought. Shaking my head clear, I steadied my vision and stood up, staring intensely into the cloud of dirt that had been made from the explosion. I looked for Deidara, hoping that I'd gotten him and would finally be free. As much as I loved learning about chakra and the abilities it enables, I hated the danger. No, it wasn't the danger of chakra that I hated and feared. It was Deidara. I hated Deidara.

After about a minute of staring, the dirt started to settle down and I saw a silhouette on the other side. A moment later and I could see who it was clearly. Deidara stood there uninjured and calm, staring back at me. 'Damn it!' I screamed in my head. 'I missed! He was too fast, he must have jumped back before it exploded!' "Tch!" I glared at him hatefully. 'No, I don't care! I'm leaving now! Even if he does catch up and captures me again, I will die before I go back with him!' I grabbed my burned arm and held it close to my chest, then I turned and ran as fast as I could into the forest. I glanced back before I was completely surrounded by trees and saw that Deidara was just standing there. 'Maybe he thinks it's better off that I'm gone.' I turned my sight back to the path I was taking.

'_I told you not to trust him!'_ Livia scolded me. _'He tried to kill you! You see what happens when you trust other people? They always hurt you!'_

"Shut up Livia…" My voice quivered. My eyesight became blurry and my cheeks felt damp. "I know… I should have listened." Tears continued to stream down my face. I didn't want to cry, I hated crying. It shows weakness. But I just couldn't stop the tears from pouring out. 'This always happens… Why does this always happen? That's what I get for getting too comfortable around someone." I looked at my burned arm and thought. 'Does the fact that I managed that explosion mean I learned the Jutsu? Or does it simply mean that I've made a little progress?' I shook my head. 'No, it doesn't matter. I'm going back home…' I stopped running and looked around. 'If I can even figure out where home is…' A sudden feeling of emptiness crashed over me and I sighed. I decided I'd just walk in one direction and hope to come across a town or another person with a map. I started walking again, slower this time, almost sure that Deidara didn't care enough to come after me. I was just a waste of his _talent_ anyways.

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**A/N:** Well then, I've made Deidara quite violent haven't I? O.o I know he's more the "cool & calm" type (because he thinks that's also art haha) but as his battle with Sasuke and his time with Tobi showed, he can be very violent and get angry pretty easily. So, I don't know _why_, I just feel the need to bring out his anger a bit more XD Don't worry, He wont always be so crazy violent. I've realized it's a bit out of his character to be so angry all the time, so I'll change it up in later chapters to make it a little more like it's supposed to be.

Also, I made up the way Reika's learning the Kinjutsu. I have no idea how it's actually learned (because they never say in the series) but I imagine that this would be how it starts and when you master it, the mouths appear on your palms and chest. Idk haha Im trying! XD

One more thing before I finish typing, I just wanted to say:

Thank you so much for the reviews I have gotten! QuQ They've really helped me fix a few things and feel better about my writting! Thank you so much! I truly appreciate it!


	15. Luck

**A/N:** So, yeah Im a tad bit late uploading the new chapter (terribly sorry!)

Umm... Not really much to say about this chapter so, enjoy :D

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**Chapter Fifteen: Luck**

"Aah I'm exhausted!" I sat on the edge of the trail to catch my breath and rest my legs.

'_You can't stop now!'_ Tamara said. _'What if Deidara comes after you?'_

"Don't worry Tamara. He wouldn't waste his time tracking me down. You heard him yourself; I stifle his creativity too much. I should just die." My last words were tinged with bitterness. "Anyways, if I continue running like this without a break I'll wind up passing out."

It'd been a whole night since I'd run away from the Akatsuki. When the sun had started to set I found a large tree and carefully climbed into the branches to sleep. It was probably one of the most uncomfortable nights I'd ever had and I yearned for the warmth of a bed. Aside from my burning arm, the night left my body cold. I woke up early the next morning while it was still dark out and continued running until I found this trail and started to follow it. Now the sun had risen and it was nearly noon. My stomach growled and I sighed. After eating regular meals for the past couple of weeks, my stomach was used to a lot of food, and now the lack of it started to make me feel weak. "Well, I better get moving again. I'm not gonna get anywhere sitting around all day." I stood and started to walk again.

I continued walking for another day and a half on the same trail in the same direction. Nothing changed but my physical condition. There seemed to be no end to this trail.

'_Reika, you should find a pond or stream. You need water.'_

"I can't leave the trail… I can't stop walking." I licked my lips. Tamara's mention of water left my mouth feeling even more sandy and dry. "If I leave the trail I may not find it again. I can't chance it. I need to keep walking." Even though I was saying that, the only thing driving me to walk forward was my will power, and that was running out as well. Sure it'd only been a couple of days since my last meal and drink of water, but I'd never once in my life gone a day without them. Or, at least water. In my mind I knew that a person could last a week or two without food, but water was essential and I was running low. Even then I was too stubborn to diverge from the path I was on. The sun beat down on me mercilessly when it hit noontime and I could feel the blood moving through my body, my heart was beating so fast to keep me alive. Dragging my feet on the ground I tripped and yelled loudly when I hit the ground, landing right on top of my burned arm. I suddenly felt nauseas. "Damn… my arm is getting bad…" I looked down at it and sighed. "I can't walk anymore. I'm too weak to even pick myself up off the ground… I'm too weak. I was always too weak." I closed my eyes, laying there in the middle of the trail. "Damn it!" I clenched my fist shakily. "I can't die like this!"

"Hey, you!" A voice.

My entire body twitched, surprised. I heard hurried footsteps coming my direction. I wondered if this would be how I died, if the Akatsuki would do away with me now that they'd found me. I felt hands on my arms and groaned in pain as my body was rolled over. I willed myself to open my eyes, resolving that I would look my attacker in the eyes before they killed me. The light from the sun was blinding for a moment until I focused my eyes on the face before me and I was surprised and relieved to find that the person who'd found me was not an Akatsuki member.

"Y-You're not one of them…" My voice squeaked, full of relief. The man made a confused face. I heard hooves and wheels approaching.

"Yoshiro!" another voice called out. The man next to me turned his head to it. "What is it?"

"It's a girl."

"A girl?! What's she doing out here? Can you tell what village she's from?"

"No I can't, she doesn't seem to be a ninja, there's no headband. What should we do Takeshi? She looks injured." I forced my body to sit up with my other arm so that I could see everything that was going on. There were two men, both wearing headbands.

'That must mean they're ninjas.' I thought. The man next to me had short brown hair pulled back in a small ponytail and a little beard. The other man had even shorter black hair and there was a scar that ran across his face diagonally.

"H-Hey, don't move." The man next to me said worriedly. A cart pulled by a horse soon appeared next to the other man.

"What's going on?" The man sitting in the cart asked. His voice sounded a bit fearful.

"We came across a girl on the road." The black haired one informed. "We're not quite sure what to do about it. She doesn't seem dangerous but it could just be an act." He turned to me and walked over. "You there, why are you here? And don't lie to us!" I tried to answer but my voice scratched the back of my dry throat and I started coughing.

"Takeshi, get her some water!" The brown haired man said. Takeshi quickly grabbed a canteen of water from the cart and handed it to me. I fumbled to open it but the pain of using my burned arm was too much even for this. The man next to me opened it for me and held it to my lips. The sensation of the cold water was rejuvenating and I suddenly felt more conscious and energetic. I drank greedily, grateful that I now had a chance to live. After I drank enough, he capped the canteen and set it down.

"Thank you." I said breathing heavily.

"Don't worry about it." He replied smiling. "What happened to you?" I thought carefully before I answered. I knew that if I answered that I was associated with the Akatsuki I'd probably be killed, and I didn't think they would trust or believe me if I told them I was trying to get back to my home in the _'other world'_ as they called it. So I chose my words cautiously as I replied,

"My village was attacked by bombers. I tried running but before I could get away I was caught in one of the blasts and it burned my arm. I was in shock and just sort of started running in no general direction, just to get away. I was scared that if one of the people who had attacked saw that I was alive they might kill me, so I kept running along this path. It's been about two days since." I looked up at Takeshi. "I've no idea where I am or where the nearest village is. Do you happen to have a map with you?" I hoped that he'd bought my story. A moment passed and he sighed.

"We do. Yoshiro, bring her over here." Yoshiro carefully wrapped my uninjured arm over his shoulder and walked me over to the cart. "Sorry Sir that we're delaying your arrival to the village." I heard Takeshi say to the man driving the cart. "Would you happen to have any medical supplies with you?" The cart driver nodded and handed him a box. Yoshiro sat me down next to the cart and told me to hold out my burned arm. I did as he said and flinched in pain, gritting my teeth as he poured some water and antiseptic over it. Once it was cleaned they put some ointment on it and wrapped it in bandages.

"Thank you." I said again to them as Takeshi fetched a map out of the cart. He placed it down in front of me and pointed to where we were.

"This is where we are." His finger traveled up about an inch on the map. "This is the closest village, only about an hour's travel from here."

"That's where we're heading." Yoshiro added. "You can tag along with us until then if you'd like."

"Yoshiro!" Takeshi yelled at him. "You say too much. We have no idea if we can trust this girl or not! We need to stay focused on our mission." Yoshiro scratched his head.

"Sorry. She seems safe enough to me, besides she was seriously injured. I don't think there's anything to worry about." Takeshi grunted disapprovingly but reluctantly followed with Yoshiro's offer. While they conversed I looked around at the map.

'Where is it?' I wondered, looking for where my home would be. 'I don't see it!' I studied the other areas and saw five large nations with many smaller nations in between them, but saw nothing else. 'This must just be a map of their lands. Maybe I can find a map with my home on it somewhere in the village.' I looked up deciding to take them up on the offer. "Actually," I started. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, it would be nice to have someone take me to the village."

"No trouble to us!" Yoshiro smiled and held out his hand. "I'm Fujishima, Yoshiro." I shook his hand.

"I'm Crowe, Reika." I followed how he said his last name first. It was odd to me, but I figured I might as well start getting used to their customs if I want to avoid any suspicion.

"And I'm Goto, Takeshi." Takeshi turned to the man in the cart and asked if it was alright that I followed. The cart driver nodded and said it was fine. Then Takeshi turned back to us. "We should get going, the longer we wait, the easier we can become targets." Yoshiro and I both nodded and he helped me into the cart. I would be too slow walking. While they weren't looking, I glanced under the tarp covering the materials that the cart contained. There were different types of goods inside; food, clothes, and other similar things.

'He must be some sort of merchant.' I figured. While we rode toward the village I listened to the conversations between Yoshiro and Takeshi. Takeshi complained about being on such a low ranking mission and said he wished he were out fighting against a worthy opponent. Yoshiro laughed and said it was a nice break from the battles going on. Then I heard mention of the Akatsuki and felt a chill go through me. I listened closely. After hearing what they said I realized that I actually knew a lot more than they did. They'd only mentioned how the Akatsuki had managed to capture some of the Jinchuuriki and obtain the Bijuu. 'Jinchuuriki? Bijuu?' I wondered. 'What are those?'

Like Takeshi had estimated, nearly an hour had passed when we saw the village in the distance. I felt myself getting excited. My mind raced to my future; my plans on finding a good map, traveling back home, and never having to deal with this part of the world again. When we entered the village, the merchant stopped his cart and thanked Yoshiro and Takeshi for escorting him safely, paid them and left. I felt it was time for me to split from them as well. The longer I'm with them, the more likely they are to realize I'm not really from around here. I thanked them again for their kindness and help and they handed me a small box of bandages.

"Keep your arm clean." Yoshiro said cheerfully. "Put new bandages on every now and then, and if you're lucky, you won't have any scarring!" I smiled and waved at the two as they walked off and thought to myself,

'Well I'm feeling pretty damn lucky already.'

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**A/N:** Pretty damn lucky indeed...

Well then... I myself am feeling pretty unlucky. Q_Q I have writer's block, and this is the last completed chapter I have done for this story... So, if I dont update next week that's why and Im sooo sorry! I'll try to finish the next chapter if I can so that I have something to put up!

Anyways, hope you liked the update!

_(Also, the last name "Crowe" was chosen because at first I chose **Crewe** because it was a popular old english name, then for some reason the name made me keep thinking of "Crow" so I switched out the 'Crew' part with 'Crow'. **Crowe** is pronounced like Crow! Because, why the hell not? :D)_


	16. Reality Check

**A/N:** Next chapter is here! ^u^ I made sure to finish it as soon as I could so that I had it ready for today! Now I have to start on chapter 17. Q_Q I wish I was as caught up as I was before when I had multiple chapters finished ahead of time, but I just dont have time for that recently. School's about to start up again :( Meh... enjoy!

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**Chapter Sixteen: Reality Check**

"Aaaah I wish I had asked those guys if they could spare some food." I complained, my stomach growling. The smells from the food vendors in the village's marketplace made my mouth water. "Oh well. I should look for a map anyways." I glanced around. There were too many stores for me to go around asking each store man, so I figured I might find someone walking around who knew of a map seller. "Excuse me sir," I stopped a man and asked him. He unfortunately didn't know of any map sellers. I continued asking random people the same thing but no one seemed to know. Finally I came to a woman wearing glasses and asked her.

"No, I don't know of anyone who sells maps here," She answered. I was going to turn and find someone else when she added, "However, there is a library down that way near the research center." She pointed me in the direction. "You could try there." I smiled.

"Thank you so much!" I said and quickly bowed, already starting to jog. 'Finally, I'll be able to find a map!' When I reached the library, I walked in and asked the woman working there where I could find the maps. She kindly pointed me to the isle they were in and I quickly started searching.

'Konoha, Iwagakure, Amegakure,…' I ran my finger over the titles of each map and tried to find one that wasn't just of the nations and countries. I searched through each and every map in the library and still couldn't find one that had my homeland drawn on it. It felt hopeless. 'It isn't here either…' I sighed, closing the last map and putting it away. 'So much for feeling lucky.' I left the library no closer to home than I had been when I'd arrived here.

'What should I do now?' I wondered, wandering around the streets of the village. I looked up at the sky and realized that the sun was beginning to set. A few lights around the street had lit up. Sighing, I figured I might as well take a look around the place. I'd never been in a village before and a curiosity started to seep into my head the more I wondered about this part of the world. What would a village like this sell? What kinds of people live here? How were things run? What did people talk about? Are most villages like this or does it vary from one place to another? My head swarmed with questions, as it often did when I was curious, and I decided I would try to find the answers.

Exploring the streets I saw vendors that sold furs, clothing, masks and many other similar things. I also saw restaurants, small inns and a small school. Most of the people seemed like ordinary people, none in uniforms or wearing those headbands that signified they were ninjas. Listening in on random conversations while I walked it seemed that they talked about the same things that people would talk about back where I lived. There was a mixture of gossip, small talk, and mindless chatter. Little things that wouldn't mean a thing to a passerby but meant everything to the ones included in the conversation. A small smile crept over my face remembering those kinds of conversations I used to have with people I knew. Even though I didn't have many back home that I considered friends, I still cared for them and had some fond memories with them and it made me feel a bit homesick.

As I reminisced, a sweet scent attacked my nose and brought me back to reality. I sniffed the air and my stomach growled. Even though I knew I wouldn't be able to buy any food, I wanted to remember what it was that made this sweet smell so that one day I may be able to try it. I sniffed the air again and followed the smell to a restaurant for barbeque. My mouth watered. I'd had barbeque before but nothing that smelled this good. I needed to take a peek of what was inside so I poked my head inside the entry and checked around for any employees. I didn't want to chance getting in trouble for entering without money. Seeing no one, I slowly made my way in, passing the small waiting room and finding my way into the main dining area. When I looked in, I was impressed at the set up. There were borders in the middle isle to keep the seating areas on either side more private and each seating area had its own grill. The customers got to cook their own meat!

'What a wonderful set up!' I thought, trying to keep from drooling. 'Why isn't every barbeque place like this?' The powerful aromas were almost too overwhelming for me and it made my legs feel weak. I stepped forward to grab onto a small edge so that I could steady myself. Taking that one step made it possible for me to see the tops of people's heads. Once again, random curiosity took over and I took another step and started looking at the people who were eating, slowly scoping around the room. 'Maybe I'll recognize some people from the streets' I figured. To my surprise, I spotted that one woman with the glasses who'd given me directions to the library. She was eating with a man across from her. 'A date perhaps?' I smiled and continued my aimless search down the left row of seats.

…Something I wish I hadn't done.

I was nearly at the end of the row when something caught my eye. Resting on the wall next to someone I couldn't see very well was a large sword with a skull at the end of the handle. He was eating with someone and I let my eyes carelessly wander across to the man who accompanied him.

If it weren't physically impossible, I would've sworn that my heart had just exploded right out of my chest. Sitting there across from the man with the sword was none other than the Akatsuki member, Itachi Uchiha, who I'd only spoken with once since I'd arrived in this place.

And he was staring right at me.

My growling, hungry stomach suddenly became a bottomless pit of churning nausea.

'Shit!' I screamed in my mind, followed with another long line of obscenities. Cursing to myself, my body had frozen where it was, my eyes unable to look away so that my body could turn and run.

'_What the fuck are you doing Reika!?'_ Livia finally snapped, interrupting my thoughts of every foul word and then some I could muster up. _'Get the hell out of here!' _I blinked and tried to casually turn to leave, as if I hadn't just seen him and he hadn't just seen me. I could barely even take one step before I heard him speak.

"Reika."

His voice was soft enough not to bring any attention from others, but stern enough to make me stop in my tracks.

'What am I doing?!' I thought, my legs trembling. 'Why did I stop?' I looked at the exit, only a few yards in front of me. 'I could run again, get back to the woods and hide...' I sighed. 'In this weakened state there's no way I'd be able to get away if they came after me though. I was lucky to get away from Deidara and make it this far… Looks like my luck's run out.'

I lowered my gaze to the ground, staring at my feet and urging them to turn me back around and walk towards Itachi and his partner. Livia and Tamara fought me the whole way, but I maintained control of my body. It felt like the longest walk I'd ever taken even though it had only been a few meters.

"Have a seat." Itachi's voice reached my ears and like a puppet, I did as he said. I stared at the grill, avoiding any kind of eye contact with either of the men.

"Ooh, isn't this the girl that's training with Deidara?" Kisame commented. "Does that mean Deidara is here as well?" He put another piece of meat on the grill and my stomach grumbled at the sizzling sound it made.

Itachi stayed silent and continued eating until a waitress walked by. He stopped her and asked her to bring a few more pieces of meat to us. She gladly nodded and returned shortly with a plate of pork. Itachi placed them on the grill and I felt my stomach twisting in hunger as the smell continued its assault on my nose. After a short while of cooking, Itachi pulled them off and placed them back on the plate. I tried to ignore my growing hunger and tried to distract my mind with other things but my focus was broken as the plate of pork was shoved in front of my face. I jumped a bit in surprise and sat up straighter.

"Here. Eat." Itachi said coolly. Against my better judgment, I looked up at him questioningly. "You're hungry aren't you?" I looked back down at the plate and reluctantly took it, picking up a pair of chopsticks. As I ate I cursed my stomach for being so loud because I knew that was how Itachi figured out I was hungry. I ate the food quickly, grateful to finally have something in my stomach and I almost forgot about the situation I was in. The meat just tasted so amazing! I finished and set the plate aside.

"Thank you." I said quietly to Itachi. Whether he heard me or not I had no idea because I never got a response back from him. While I sat there waiting for them to finish their food I thought of what to do and how to get away. The two barely spoke to each other and if they did it was just a small conversation; if it was even long enough to be called a conversation at all that is.

'_What do you think you're doing Reika?'_ Livia was furious. _'Why the hell didn't you leave when we had a chance?'_

'I don't know.' I admitted to her. 'I guess I didn't think I'd be able to make it away if they had decided to chase me. I didn't have very much energy left in me.'

'_Well, we can't just stay here with them.'_ Tamara chimed in. _'And we can't go back to the hideout.'_

'I know…' I sat there in thought before a voice caught my attention.

"Hey Kid!" Kisame was standing. I looked up. He grabbed for his sword and turned to walk out. "About time you heard me. Let's get going." I stood and followed, Itachi right behind me. He left money on the counter for the waitress to pick up and we left the restaurant.

'I need an opening…' I thought as we walked. Itachi and Kisame had swapped places while I hadn't been paying attention and now Itachi was leading the way with Kisame behind me. 'An opening…' I looked around for something, anything, but to no avail.

"Hey, Itachi, what are we going to do with her?" Kisame asked. "I don't see Deidara around here anywhere." Itachi walked in silence for a while then answered him.

"Deidara isn't here." He then glanced back at me and by the look in his eyes, I knew he'd already figured out that I'd run away.

"Eh?" Kisame seemed confused. "Then why is she here?" Itachi didn't answer and Kisame left it alone.

Soon we had walked to the outskirts of the village and were following a trail back into the forest. Once we had gotten far enough into it, Itachi stopped and turned around to look at me. I stopped and gulped anxiously as Kisame stood off to the side. My mind started to race wondering why we'd stopped while at the same time wondering if this could be my chance to escape.

"What do you plan on doing, Reika?" Itachi's voice was cold and devoid of emotion. "If you leave the Akatsuki, what do you plan on doing? Where do you plan on going?" I heard what I thought was a little bit of a mocking tone in his questions but I answered anyways.

"Back home." I said bluntly. "Back to my home in the other part of this world." He stood staring at me blankly but seriously. After a long moment of silence he spoke again.

"And then what? Do you expect things to just go back to normal?" This question caught me off guard. I hadn't thought of that. "You've been gone for nearly two months now. You can't think they won't ask where you've been, or what happened? How would you explain all of this to them? Do you think they would believe you at all?" I stared at the ground stunned.

'How had I not thought of that…?' I questioned myself. My vision blurred and I fell to my knees. I knew Itachi was right and I felt defeated but I didn't want to lose my hope for returning home. "I could show them… I could show them all the things I can do with chakra!" He continued to stare emotionlessly.

"They will not believe you. Where you lived the people rationalize things to their own liking, so that they aren't scared and they can understand. They can't just let things be as they are. All mysteries must have explanations, and if they can't explain something it becomes a myth or legend. They will twist your truth into their own lies and make it their own truths, leaving your truths to be nothing but lies to them. You know what I'm saying is the true reality of the people you've left behind, don't you?" I felt his eyes staring at me expectantly as he patiently waited for an answer. Biting my lip to keep from crying, I dipped my head and nodded. With those last words he'd shattered the tiny shred of hope I had been clinging onto so desperately. He spoke to me one last time that night. A question that he already knew the answer to, I'm sure. He'd known the answer to it from the very start.

"What do you plan on doing now, Reika?" I stood slowly, keeping my eyes on the ground and head lowered then answered quietly in defeat,

"Take me back."

With my answer he turned around and we continued our trek back to the Akatsuki's hideout in silence.

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**A/N:** Ok, so I kept thinking about Itachi and Kisame's team and how they may get along with each other. In my mind I imagine that Itachi wasn't really the conversational type and was more quiet, only answering questions relevant to his thoughts or situation. And because of this, I imagine that Kisame grew used to having Itachi sort of 'ignore' his questions and he would just change the subject or drop it altogether. (Hence why Kisame doesn't really press Itachi to answer him in this chapter)

And although I know Itachi isn't really the type to talk alot, he does have moments in the series where he does speak and explain alot, so I figured I'd try giving him a little dialogue like that in this chapter. :3 Just to show his wise words and show Reika that she was clinging onto false hope, and that she needed to start thinking rationally instead of being impulsive. And of course, Itachi being the kind of ninja to think like, 50 steps ahead of his opponent (exaggeration~), he would of course already know how the conversation would end and what Reika's answer to him would be :D (Oh and he knew Deidara wasn't there because he would've been able to sense Deidara's chakra)

Anyways, this is my sort of take on how the Itachi Kisame team works. Hope it seems believable. XD Hope you enjoyed the new chapter! I will try to have 17 done for you all by next tuesday!

_(Btw, for those who think that **ALL** places hate the Akatsuki, that isn't true, that's why Itachi and Kisame are able to walk freely in the village in this chapter. I don't even know if all villages even know of the Akatsuki. In one of the episodes, Tobi and Deidara eat some Dangos from a dango stand on a trail (probably near a village) so that shows me that they aren't hated everywhere XD Akatsuki members need to eat too don't they?! Just a little clarification if anyone's confused on the matter.)_


	17. New Location

**A/N:** Hello everyone! (SOOO sorry this update is a bit late) I got a bit distracted and lost track of time.**  
**

**Important update!: **I've decided to edit the first chapter introducing Reika to make it LESS _ANGSTY._ I've decided that I'm going to scrap all the ideas I had in there about her not liking being human and her being emo and having a rough childhood.(they were minor ideas for parts in the story, but weren't very important so there's no need to keep them.) BUT I am keeping the idea that she has no memories of before the age of 6 (because that is essential for the plot of the story... You'll see ;3) I don't know if tells you when I've made a change to a chapter so, if it doesn't, keep an eye out for the edited first chapter (and other chapters that will be edited as needed to fit with the new first chapter). I will definitely have it fixed up by next Tuesday. :]

Enjoy the update!

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**Chapter Seventeen: New Location**

We walked nearly the whole night, only taking short breaks to rest our legs and at one point Itachi helped me replace the bandages on my burned arm with new, fresh ones. It was awkwardly silent for me and it made me wish we would get there sooner just so I could get away from this silence. I was so used to Tobi's loud greetings and whiney complaints that it felt strange to only hear the wind rustling leaves and the shuffle of my own feet moving.

The sky started to light up as the sun rose and the silence started to become unbearable for me so I decided to ask Itachi a question that'd been in the back of my mind the entire night. I quickened my pace a bit so that I was walking beside him and asked,

"Itachi, I have a question." He remained silent, not even acknowledging that I was there but I kept on. "Back when I was in the village, I looked at some maps they had, but none of them had my homeland drawn on them. Would you happen to know why?" Again he kept his silence. I slowed my pace, beginning to give up on trying to get an answer when he finally spoke.

"It's forbidden to have a map of that part of the world available for the public. It's forbidden to even speak about it unless under certain circumstances."

"Forbidden?" I questioned. "Why?" He took his time to answer and I could tell now that he was picking his words carefully.

"Your homeland is a place that is forbidden for people here." He started to explain. "The reason for this is because the people there are not trained, or skilled therefore if shinobi here were to find out about it, there are some who would try to take advantage of that and would cause chaos and take over there. It would not be very difficult. So the ancestors of the nations all agreed to make it a law that maps no longer be made with that land drawn on and even the act of speaking about the land became punishable. They wanted all knowledge of it to fade away and become forgotten. And it did."

"Wait," I was a bit confused. "Then how do you know about it, if it's supposedly been forgotten? How does the Akatsuki know?" Itachi resumed his nearly endless silence streak. I glared at the back of his head in annoyance.

"Ah, I remember it now. Nobody really knows how that place came to be." Kisame added in. He'd been listening to the whole conversation. "But the information about the place wasn't very hard to obtain. All the kages know of it and they keep the old maps with their forbidden jutsu information." I noticed Itachi glance over his shoulder at Kisame, and Kisame fell silent.

'He must have said too much.' I thought to myself. 'But what part could have possibly been useful?'

'_Reika you idiot, do you even have a brain?'_ Livia groaned. _'He said that there are still maps that have your homeland on them. We just need to find a way to get to them.'_

I blushed a bit in embarrassment.

'How could I have missed that?' I wondered. 'That must have been why Itachi was being cautious about what he said. He knew I'd probably try to find a way to get a map.'

'_He would've been worried for nothing if you didn't have us.'_ Livia scoffed. _'You're too stupid to realize something so simple on your own!'_

'Shut up Livia.'

We travelled on, once again, in silence. We took more breaks during the day because of the heat and stopped by a stream once to restock on water. Eventually we came to the base of a large mountain.

'That's strange.' I thought. 'I don't ever recall seeing a mountain anywhere near the hideout…' We started walking up a path on the mountain.

"Is this the new place?" Kisame asked as we made our way up. Itachi nodded and continued on. I had no idea what they were talking about but I followed quietly without question. Soon we came to a tunnel in the side of the mountain.

'Where did that come from?' I wondered. I hadn't seen it at all from below.

We walked into the tunnel, passing a few hallways that branched off the main tunnel, until we reached a large opened area.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"The new Akatsuki hideout." Itachi answered. "Lord Pein recently had this mountain hollowed out and modified to become another hideout."

"Many of our other hideouts are currently too dangerous to move to," Kisame added. "and we don't really like to stay in one place for too long." I looked around curiously, hoping this hideout wouldn't be as confusing to maneuver through as the other one had been.

_Tap Tap Tap_

'Footsteps?' I turned to see who else had entered into the manmade cave and spotted Tobi running out of one of the hallways.

"Wahoo!" He cheered. "I got the room I wanted!" He looked over and saw us. "Reika-chan! Helloooo!" He waved. I waved back laughing. He was definitely a sight for sore eyes. It was nice to finally have all the silence broken.

Tobi suddenly bolted down another hallway to explore the new area and I heard new footsteps come from the same corridor he'd appeared from. When the person stepped out into the main passageway, my body went cold and I stepped back, accidentally bumping into Itachi.

"Hey, Tobi! Don't just go running around here! Help me ca—…" Deidara was carrying an unconscious girl over his shoulder and had spotted us. Our eyes met momentarily then he looked up at Itachi. The look that washed over his face left me baffled. His face didn't seem sad but… Hurt? Angry? Tired even? I couldn't tell. He followed Tobi into the hallway, carrying the girl lazily over his shoulder.

I tried to get a good look at her while I could, curious about who she was and why she was here. She had long, curly, dark hair and wore a headband, labeling her as a ninja. My eyes teared up a bit as I thought of the possible reasons for why she was here but there was one possible reason that bothered me the most; Was she my replacement? Was I so easily replaced that it only took Deidara a few days to find a new student?

I shook my head to clear my mind and was about to ask Itachi about the girl when Kisame interrupted.

"Is that the girl that has the information?" Itachi nodded and headed to one of the corridors, followed by Kisame, leaving me alone in the large open area.

'So I haven't been replaced…' I sat down and sighed then shook my head again. 'Why do I feel so relieved about that? It's not like I want to be his student, so why…' My thoughts were halted when I felt a presence next to me and turned to see who was there. Staring at me was the upper half of the green haired plant guy I'd seen only a few times before. Half his body was visible but the other half seemed to be in the ground. My entire body shuddered.

'C-Creeepy!' I thought as I crawled a bit away. "W-Where the hell did you come from!?" I stuttered.

"The ground." He blankly said. "So you're the new girl that's studying under Deidara. Reika right? I don't believe we've properly met before." I shook my head no, still creeped out. "I'm Zetsu."

"_C'mon, we don't have time for formalities. We have other business to attend to."_

"I was just being friendly. Besides, that stuff is boring. Can't we do something else?"

"_No, we have our orders. Let's go."_

"Fine." Zetsu sighed. "See you around, Reika." He smiled then disappeared into the ground.

"…What the hell?" I said to myself out loud, still staring at the spot on the ground where he'd been. "Who was he talking to?"

'_Didn't Deidara say something before about Zetsu having two separate personalities as well?'_ Tamara remembered. _'It seems that the black side of Zetsu is different than the white side.'_

"I guess so…" I shuddered again. "That was still creepy…"

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**A/N:** Well, yeah. This chapter is slightly shorter than most of my chapters (sorry for that!) but I felt if I didn't end it at that part, it may become too long.

Just a few explanations about some parts in this chapter. When Tobi runs out yelling, "I got the room I wanted!": I always imagined when the Akatsuki switched hideouts that some members might fight over rooms, so it'd be sort of first come first served. Kind of a funny little joke-ish thing my friend and I have. Yeah... We spend our time wondering what the Akatsuki do in their free time. *forever alone*

I tried to keep to Zetsu's character as best as I could. I know that the black side of Zetsu's body is much more serious and that the white side is quite easily amused and seems pretty friendly (to me). He's a pretty laid back guy and would probably just sit and relax if the black Zetsu didn't keep him on task.

Oh right! And that _random female ninja_ that they caught is just a little shout out to one of my friends' characters ;] (although she plays no role in my story, I thought it'd be funny.) This is the only time she's seen in the story, and they captured her for some useful information they believed she has. That's all.

Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!


	18. Unpleasant Reunion

**A/N:** *too tired to think clearly***  
**

Hello everyone! Finally able to update. I'm sorry I'm nearly a week late, but school has seriously stressed me out and I'm super tired. Just in the first 4 days of school I had a nosebleed because of my stress -_- Just out of the blue!

Anyways, to make up for not updating on time I'm going to upload 2 chapters today for you all.

I will put more updates and good news down at the end. Enjoy the new chapter!

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**Chapter Eighteen: Unpleasant Reunion**

Still dazed from the sudden surprise of Zetsu's appearance I stood up and re-examined the room around me. I could almost picture it being a living room or recreational room if they were to furnish it with anything.

'_What did Tobi mean by 'he got the room he wanted'?'_ Tamara asked curiously.

I didn't have an answer for her but her question had sparked one of my own. Where was my room?

Deciding to follow in Tobi's curiosity, I began to explore the corridors and the many doors that cut into their walls. Upon opening several of the entrances I discovered the location of the bathroom and Tobi and Deidara's room (on account of the many clay sculptures placed on a desk in the corner). I stepped inside and examined the little clay pieces of work. One was of a nine tailed fox I'd seen him working on before, another was one of his typical birds, one of his usual spider-like bombs, and lastly a scorpion. I went to pick up the scorpion sculpture to study it closer when I heard the door to the room open up.

I whirled around and found Deidara standing there, a bit surprised to see me in his room. I panicked immediately and tried to run past him out the door but he caught my arm swiftly.

'Damn it!' I screamed in my head. 'Now he's going to take this chance to kill me, finish what he couldn't before.' I struggled to free my arm but he was surprisingly strong for his physique… Or I was just too weak. Desperately, I started to cry and hit at his arm but he held on and stood there motionless, unphased.

"What are you doing?" He finally asked. "Why are you trying to leave?"

"I don't want to die…" I whimpered, stopping my attempt to flee. His grip on my upper arm slackened and he moved it down to the burn. I winced when he lifted my arm up and started to unwrap the bandages that held it. I looked up and saw he was inspecting the burns with a face I could not read. A short moment of silence passed between us.

"I didn't mean what I said back then, hm." He gently let my arm back down. He scratched his head thinking of what to say. "At least, not the way you think." I stared at him in complete confusion. He sighed frustratedly. "Look, I _was_ angry, but when I said I should have picked someone else, I didn't mean that it was because I didn't want you as my student. I meant that I literally thought you couldn't learn my technique, hm."

"Why wouldn't I be able to learn it?!" I shouted defensively. I felt insulted, like he didn't believe in my abilities… As if I really had any. "Can't anyone learn it?!" He shook his head.

"No, my technique is a special one called a Kekkei Genkai. Kekkei are abilities that are only passed down through blood lines, you have to be born with it, hm. Mine is called the explosion release kekkei. That's how I'm able to make my clay explode. The forbidden jutsu that I've been teaching you is something I took in order to enhance my art, hm." I stared at him in disbelief. I couldn't believe what I had just heard.

'He didn't even know if I could actually learn any of his techniques, yet he treated me like that when I failed?!' I was infuriated.

"You took me from my home, trained me, beat me and insulted me for failing and you didn't even _KNOW_ if I could actually accomplish it?!" He opened his mouth to respond but I didn't give him a chance. "Why did you choose me to learn your '_art_'?! I was fine and content living where I was and going to school like a normal kid. Now my friends and parents are probably worried sick wondering what the hell happened to me and where the hell I could be!" My eyes started to fill with tears as I thought of my loving parents getting a phone call from school about my disappearance and I couldn't speak anymore. I turned and walked out of the room.

"But," Deidara ran after me. "You did accomplish it! You do have the Kekkei, I was right in choosing you!"

I ignored him and continued walking, turning at the exit. I spotted Itachi as I stepped out of the cave. A few steps out and I heard Deidara being stopped by Itachi, proceeded by him shouting to let him pass. Just before stepping out of earshot I caught Itachi say,

"She won't try to run away again. She just needs time."

'_What the hell is his problem!?'_ Livia fussed, just as annoyed as I was. _'He said you have the kekkei though, right? Why don't we go back there and blow him up!?'_

I shook my head. As angry as I was at him, he was much stronger and if I somehow did manage to kill him, then I'd be stuck here for no reason without a teacher. I hated the thought, but I still needed Deidara to teach me.

'But how the hell am I supposed to learn if I don't want to be around him!?'I clenched my fists and felt the small bag of clay I still had on my belt brush against my hand. Looking at it I decided to practice and hopefully vent my anger by blowing things up. That _IS_ what normal rebellious teens do, right?

Taking a small amount of clay and putting it in my mouth, I focused my chakra into my teeth and started chewing. Along with my chakra, I tried to chew my anger into the clay as well then, making the hand signs Deidara had taught me, I spit the clay into my free hand, shaped it into a ball and threw it into the air. A few attempts later and I finally managed to make some clay explode, which, although it was pathetic, was progress non-the-less.

As I stood there, blowing things up indiscriminately, I felt an uneasiness creep over me. I looked around the surrounding trees. It felt like someone was watching me. Tamara and Livia's disquiet didn't help my nervousness in the slightest bit either. I continued to look around for a while then, finding nothing out of the ordinary, I shrugged and went back to making bombs. However, I couldn't focus, unable to shake off the strange feeling of a presence around me and decided it would be best if I returned to the hideout.

Having calmed down greatly after "training", I made my way back, trying to ignore my uneasiness. When I arrived, Deidara was sitting just outside the entrance, accompanied by a hyperactive Tobi who was running around every which way he could and yelling as loudly as possible.

"Tobi, go away!" Deidara growled, spotting me.

"But Senpai— " Tobi began, then stopped when Deidara shot him a warning glance. Tobi ran inside and Deidara stood up to greet me somberly.

"Come with me, hm." He turned. "I'll show you your room." I followed without protest. My room was just down the hall from his and it looked much more comforting compared to my old room. There was a window and a desk sitting right under it. It had the same type of bed and low table, and the same amount of space but the light filling the room made it more welcoming. I looked around. No camera. That put me more at ease. I was tired of the constant surveillance.

While I examined my new living quarters, Deidara pulled out a small box from his cloak and handed it to me.

"What's this?" I asked, taking the box. I opened it and found it held some bandages and first-aid tools within it.

"You've got to keep that burn on your arm clean, right?" He said. "We'll have to postpone your training until it fully heals. If we had a medical nin with us it'd heal faster, but you can still heal without, hm. It'll just take longer." I nodded and closed the box.

"I'll go clean my arm now then." I said, walking past him and out of the room. When I returned to my room he had left and I was glad about that. I didn't exactly want to talk to him right now. I plopped down on my bed comfortably and hugged the pillow. "How nice…" I sighed, suddenly overcome with fatigue. It had grown dark quite some time ago and the silver moon light was beaming through my window. The contrasting light entering the crack through my slightly opened door fought with the moonlight as a shadow passed by in the hall. There was a knock on the door down the hall and it opened.

"_What do you want?" _an annoyed grunt. Deidara.

"_I thought I'd come by and tell you that Lord Pein plans on making a visit sometime this week."_ The soft voice belonged to Itachi.

"_Lord Pein? Why?"_

"_I wouldn't know."_ There was a pause. _"I would guess to check up on the girl's training." _Footsteps echoed and faded down the hall, but the door remained open.

'Lord Pein?' I wondered when footsteps suddenly started to approach my own room. I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. The door to my room creaked open and the footsteps got closer as someone knelt down beside me. I cracked one eye open just a bit and saw Deidara reach an arm up to me. He gently pulled my covers back, believing I was asleep and trying not to wake me, then lifted my burned arm and unwrapped it.

"I'm sorry Reika." He sighed, quietly speaking to himself. He pulled out a container that appeared to hold ointment in it. He took some and hovered his hand over my arm. "I wanted to give you some time to rest, but it seems we need to hasten your recovery, hm… At least you won't be awake to feel this…" And with that he started to spread the cream over my burns. It was nice and cold at first and I was confused about why he had said it was good I wasn't awake until the pain started to set in. The chillness started to actually burn and warm up, and I suddenly felt tingling in my arm. I bit my lip to try and keep from moving and bit so hard I could taste the coppery blood that trickled out. The pain was nearly unbearable. It was as if thousands of bees had stung me all at the same time, a swarm of ants were tearing at my flesh, pinching with their serrated jaws, or hundreds of snakes were sinking their fangs into me and injecting their venom while I was holding my arm over a bon fire.

Without realizing it, my eyes had shot wide open and tears were flowing freely across the bridge of my nose, down my cheek and onto my pillow. Still, I tried to keep my body from trembling, not wanting Deidara to realize I was awake but my whole façade crumbled when a small whimper escaped my throat. Immediately he stopped and looked over at my face. He gasped when he realized I was awake and cursed to himself.

"Reika, you're awake!?" He whispered loudly. "For how long?!"

"T-The whole time…" I winced, pulling my arm back shakily. "W-What did you put on my arm?" He looked at the jar sitting on the floor.

"It's a special healing cream, hm. It accelerates the healing process, but it's painful… I wasn't going to use it, but something came up and I need you in condition to train tomorrow, hm." I buried my face into the pillow to muffle my cries. I suddenly felt Deidara grab my other hand and I accepted it without a moment's thought, tightening my grip on his. "The pain will go away soon, hm. Just bear with it a while longer."

He sat there clasping my hand until the pain subsided. The whole experience left me tired and drained and it wasn't long before my heavy eyes closed and I fell asleep with him still at my side.

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A/N: Ok, yeah I made up the whole "Super healing cream" thing. I just thought, why the hell not? I was getting annoyed with Reika's burned arm so I wanted it gone! XD

**_Important updates:_**

- I have updated and edited ALL the previous chapters to accommodate with the revised first chapter. I suggest at least going back to read the first chapter. The other ones aren't really as important or different.

- I will only be updating _**every other Tuesday** _instead of every Tuesday due to the fact of school being so busy and shizz.

- One upside to school starting, I now spend nearly 8 hours a day writing more chapters! (since I always write or draw during classes). So far I have started on chapter 21. _**I MAY hit writer's block soon**_ because after what happens in chapter 21, I don't know which way I will be taking my story. O.o I guess I'll hit that bump when I get there though.

- I think that's all for now. I would love to get some reviews if anyone has any tips or suggestions about how I can improve. ^-^ Always looking to improve my writing skills! _(Also, if you find any typos, please tell me. For some reason has been deleting some of my text when I save a document! I don't know what's going on, but it's quite annoying.)_


	19. The Boss Visits

**A/N:** Here is the next chapter I promised tonight! This time it's in **Livia's Point of View**

Enjoy!

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**Chapter Nineteen: The Boss visits**

_(This Chapter is in Livia's Point of View)_

"Tamara," I looked over at her. She was watching worriedly through Reika's eyes as Deidara tried comforting her through the healing pain in her arm. I called to her again and she turned to look at me. "Tamara, you felt that earlier… right?" She nodded.

"It couldn't possibly be though… could it?" She wondered.

"It couldn't have been anything else though." I sat and watched Deidara through Reika's eyes as well, waiting until he left. It wouldn't be long now before Reika would fall asleep. "If we're correct, then there's no doubt we will be getting a visit tonight. We just have to wait until he appears."

We sat and waited for nearly an hour after Deidara had finally left until we decided it was safe enough to go. "We should climb out the window." I told Tamara. "I don't want to risk running into someone by walking down the corridors." She nodded silently in agreement and I began preparing my hand signs. Unknown by Reika, I was the only one with the ability to control her body while Tamara was in charge of her consciousness during the times that I possessed her. Luckily for me this time, Reika was asleep so I wouldn't have to use as much chakra to keep her senses shut off. I looked at Tamara and she nodded that she was ready. Nodding back I completed my jutsu and switched consciousness with Reika.

I sat up quickly and went to the window, opening it and stepping out. We were quite a ways up from the trail so I had to climb down. As I focused the chakra into my hands and feet to maneuver myself to the ground I looked at the arm that she had burned a few days ago. It was nearly completely healed. 'Wow, so that stuff Deidara used actually works? No doubt it's probably stolen from a village that specializes in healing herbs and medicine.'

Stepping down onto the flat rock, I turned towards the forest that surrounded the mountain and stood there staring into the darkness for a long moment. Within minutes a dark figure stepped out into the open. 'I knew it.' I thought as I knelt on one knee and bowed my head. I looked back up and the figure stood only feet in front of me.

"It's been a long time… Lord Slenderman." I glanced at his pale faceless face as he nodded. I stood up. "Nearly ten years, if I'm remembering correctly."

"Has it been that long already?" His voice held a strange, almost demonic echo to it. "I do apologize. My plans fell a tad behind schedule." He made a court bow then reached out his unproportionally long arm and grabbed my chin—or rather, Reika's chin—and started to tilt my head side to side, examining her appearance. "So, this is the same child as before?" he asked, making his way around her, gently pinching at her shirt and hair as he moved. His movements seemed almost childish, full of curiosity. It reminded me of Tobi and I growled a bit in annoyance.

"Yes, this is Reika Crowe. Tamara and I have been watching carefully over her, just as you ordered." I looked back up the mountain. "However, it's becoming extremely difficult to maintain her now that she's back here…"

"No need to worry Livia." Slenderman reassumed his initial stance in front of me, standing slightly hunched over. I looked at him questioningly. "This was all part of my plan for her."

"It was? What do you mean?" I looked at him in shock.

"I knew I would need her to return to the shinobi's land eventually to train. The reason I sent her to the forbidden land is exactly that. It is forbidden. There she would grow up safely into an adult. When I found her she was much too young to survive the battles taking place in the situation she was in. I would have killed her then to save her from the pain but her chakra intrigued me and I felt a different decision would be better." He looked at me with his eyeless face. "That is why I summoned you and Tamara. I needed someone to protect the seal I placed and to keep it from being released."

"That's getting very difficult now that we're back here!" I interrupted. "The memories are trying to resurface, and sooner or later someone is bound to realize there is a— " He raised a hand to silence me and I shut my mouth.

"Again, there is no need to worry dear Livia." He made signs with his hand and placed a finger to my forehead. I could feel he was checking inside her mind. "Good evening Tamara." He casually said. "I hope you are doing well?"

'_I'm doing fine, thank you Lord Slenderman.'_ She replied as he continued through to Reika's mind. Having finished with his task he removed his finger from her forehead.

"There we are." He cheerfully said. "I've strengthened it for you. It shouldn't be so hard to maintain for now. You two have done an excellent job with your task. Did you run into any problems with the couple I assigned to raise her?"

"None we couldn't handle." I answered. "They still believe her to be their daughter." He nodded in thought. I grew impatient and interrupted his silence.

"How much longer will your plan take? I'm tired of being stuck inside this girl's mind! I want to go back to my own business. I bet my sister is laughing at me as we speak! It's such an embarrassment to be trapped like this!" He simply chuckled.

"Patience my dear. It's all coming together accordingly." I looked at him annoyed. Why I had agreed to this, I will never know. I've wasted ten years of my life sealed inside this stupid girl; I just wanted to go back to enjoying myself instead of babysitting constantly.

"What exactly _IS_ this plan of yours?" I asked, hoping it would give me an estimate on how much more time I was to be here.

"This plan is to get Reika trained well enough to survive here. Hopefully we can even tap into that special chakra of hers and see exactly what happens. I don't usually let children live in such a situation as I found her. I'd like to see her reach her true potential."

"I heard you were the one in charge of the Akatsuki." I inquired, recalling the portrait from the old hideout. "What exactly does this organization have to do with Reika and your plan?"

"Ah, right. That was a very difficult part of the plan. I told Pein that I needed one of the members to 'take on a student' so to speak, and told him that Deidara would be the preferable teacher. I lied about the reason and didn't speak to him about Reika of course. The difficult part of all that was using my chakra to track and follow Deidara and sway his decisions. You think his choosing Reika was a coincidence? I felt she had aged enough to be brought back here and to begin learning. So far, everything has gone accordingly."

I looked at him surprised.

'He had _ALL_ of this planned out for this many years?!' I was amazed. "Well then, how much longer do you think it will be before she is trained enough for the seal to be released?" He scratched his cheek.

"Actually, that I'm unsure of." My eye twitched.

'Maybe he _HADN'T_ had all this planned out already… Maybe he just thought of it off the top of his head…' I sighed in frustration and decided to move the conversation along. "Well then, could you at least tell me why it took you _ten years _to contact us? What could you have possibly been doing this entire time?"

"Actually, I did try quite a bit to get in touch." He explained then gestured to his whole body. "However, I obviously couldn't just walk right out into public. Humans in that part of the world would panic seeing a creature such as myself. Even here I'm simply a legend. I decided to keep myself hidden, camouflaging myself in the forests nearby and waiting for an opportunity, but no opportunity presented itself to me and unfortunately, some people discovered me in the forest and started pursuing me." He paused and rubbed one of his temples as he thought back. "This made it extremely difficult for me to continue so I had one of my own division members take over—"

"Wait," I interrupted. "You gathered your own division? How?"

"Ah yes," He signaled with two fingers and a small group of people wearing masks jumped out of the bushes and trees and landed behind him, kneeling with their heads lowered. "They're much like the ANBU forces that the Kage are in charge of. It took quite some time to gather enough for a decent squad, but after scouting for abilities and swearing them to secrecy, I founded my own elite division..." Then he added, "…of which no one other than myself and my affiliates know of, of course. This one is the leader of the entire division." At those words, the member nearest to Slenderman stood. He wore a white mask with dark black lips, black rings around the eyes, and painted on high arching eyebrows. He stood absolutely still and silent.

"This is who I left in charge of surveillance as I tried to deal with my pursers. However, no matter how many times I purged their memories, they continued to follow." He sighed almost in annoyance. "Eventually I decided I was wasting too much time trying to contact you in such a manner, so instead I put the next step of my plan into motion and had Reika brought here to the Akatsuki. You see, I've been quite occupied with the Akatsuki, my plans for Reika, and all my other obligations that I have fallen a bit behind schedule. But, it's all starting to straighten out again, and soon will be back on track."

I sat there in thought, going over all the new information in my mind as I looked over the masked members of Lord Slenderman's squad. As I pondered over it all I noticed the sky start to lighten up. Lord Slenderman seemed to grow wary of the time as well for he signaled all of his masked underlings to dismiss. He turned to me. "It seems it is time for me to depart." He crossed an arm over his chest and bowed slightly then turned and walked away as he spoke. "Continue your work with Reika. I apologize for any burdens that may put on you and Tamara."

"Hold on!" I yelled after him. "I still have questions!" He simply held a hand up in the air and replied,

"I will come visit again. Wait until then. I will be leaving some of my squad to keep an eye on her progress while I am away." He disappeared in a blur and I sighed.

'_Livia, we should get back up to Reika's bedroom.'_ Tamara said. _'She's bound to wake soon as well as the other Akatsuki members.'_

"Right." I replied, turning to climb back up to the open window. "No doubt Deidara will be the first to check on her too…"

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**A/N:** Oh my glob, and Slendy finally appears in the story! At last! Hahaha, well, he sort of appeared in the Murky Dreams chapter, but that was just supposed to be vague.

With this chapter, I wanted to explain things but not give away too much and maybe build a bit more mystery around Reika's past or whatever. I dunno, I still feel I gave away too much XD

Anyways, before people start flaming me about how Slendy behaves in the story, this is just how I see him. (or more like, how my friend influenced how I see him.) In our minds we see him as someone who cares about children and saves them from pain. (or in the Shinobi world's case, kills war orphans and such so that they don't have to grow up like Nagato and Sasuke did. Filled with hate and pain :P)

I also see him as very kind and gentlemanly, but he can be a real badass when he needs to be. And I found a way to incorporate Masky and the whole Marble Hornets thingy into the story! :D If you were able to get the reference.

Being a ninja explains many of Slendy's powers! XD Memory erasing, popping up out of nowhere, and such! They can all be jutsu! (oh me and my stupid over-imaginative brain)

I hope this chapter was interesting/understandable/believable and overall enjoyable to read. If not, sorry! ^-^


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